A massive storm wreaked havoc on passenger air services in Buenos Aires, Argentina yesterday. Wind gusts over 60 miles per hour threw planes around the tarmac and rattled terminals apart. Footage has even emerged on social media of an Aerolíneas Argentinas Boeing 737-800 being pushed into a set of boarding stairs by the wind. Argentina’s flag carrier reported that the storm took 16 planes out of service, according to Aviacionline.
The Boeing 737 is seen getting turned in its stand by the gusts, with the left wing’s leading edge striking the stairs. Mother Nature shoved ground equipment and other aircraft with nothing to do to stop potential collisions. Aerolíneas Argentinas was forced to cancel the plane’s scheduled flight from Aeroparque Jorge Newbery to Mendoza, 600 miles west of the country’s capital. The airline canceled 64 flights in total.
Things were not safer inside the terminal at Aeroparque Jorge Newbery. The storm shook the structure to its core. Ceiling tiles fell to the floor, and interior glass partitions were visibly shaking. Despite several small single-engine planes being flipped upside down, the airport itself wasn’t closed for long. Once the runway was cleared, the airport was reopened for passenger service in just a few hours.
No one was reported injured at the airport, but that sadly wasn’t the case for the rest of Argentina. The BBC reported that the roof of a sports center collapsed and killed 13 people in the coastal city of Bahia Blanca, and another woman was killed in a Buenos Aires suburb by a tree branch.