Narrative:

I started the day aware of the weather. It was raining when I woke up a couple hours prior to our wake up call. It was hard steady rain; vertical; with little horizontal lean. At the pick-up point in front of the hotel; the sky was mostly overcast and the air was warm; thick; and heavy with moisture. Convective activity was a consideration from the beginning of the day. Rain and thunder showers were in the vicinity at the time of departure.500 NM from departure; approximately one hour into the flight; just after passing position zzzzz; level at FL320; the majority of obvious convective activity was behind us. Sky conditions included an obscuring haze layer above broken clouds with tops at FL300 and smooth air and clear above. We had just settled into cruise flight after completing a seat rotation. The captain elected the first two hour rest period. The international relief pilot was settling in with the flight plan and entering flight information region (fir) boundaries and 108 mile advance notification distance rings in the fix page. I was watching the FMC entries was included in my normal instrument and outside scan. The flight was day time/VMC; course appeared clear of circuit breaker's; and no returns were being painted by the radar. The fp radar was selected to 80 NM and mp radar was selected to 160 NM; tilt was selected to (-)1 - (-)2 degrees ; brightness to full; gain adjusted to maximum. My attention was directed at normal scan of pfd; navigation display; enroute chart; FMC entries and outside.within the scan; I glanced outside and instantly realized we would not clear the convective cloud boiling a few miles ahead. The cloud top was approximately FL340 and rapidly building. Immediately; I pushed heading sel and selected a heading into the indicated wind; stated out loud; 'we are not going to clear that cloud!' as the airplane passed through about 10 degrees bank; we penetrated the very edge of the convective cloud. The airspeed jumped below the vmin foot and stick shaker engaged. My reaction was; click off the autopilot; and maintain the level pitch attitude; existing bank angle; and guard the thrust levers. Within one second of cloud penetration; wind shear and hail were encountered. The windshield was cracked in several locations. We exited the cloud within just a few short seconds in a ten degree bank; about 10 - 15 degrees left of our original heading. I rolled the airplane back to the right through wings level; to its original course; I glanced at the engine instruments to verify normal indications. The airplane was returned to straight and level flight at our assigned altitude prior to re-engaging the autopilot. After a brief assessment of the airplanes condition; the 'window damage' checklist was accomplished. The captain was called to the cockpit and briefed; the fme was briefed and the flight continued to its destination without further incident.significant airframe and possible engine damage was discovered upon inspection after arrival at the destination airport.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Heavy transport flight crew reported encountering unexpected convective weather resulting in a course deviation. Aircraft briefly entered the weather and sustained hail damage.

Narrative: I started the day aware of the weather. It was raining when I woke up a couple hours prior to our wake up call. It was hard steady rain; vertical; with little horizontal lean. At the pick-up point in front of the hotel; the sky was mostly overcast and the air was warm; thick; and heavy with moisture. Convective activity was a consideration from the beginning of the day. Rain and thunder showers were in the vicinity at the time of departure.500 NM from departure; approximately one hour into the flight; just after passing position ZZZZZ; level at FL320; the majority of obvious convective activity was behind us. Sky conditions included an obscuring haze layer above broken clouds with tops at FL300 and smooth air and clear above. We had just settled into cruise flight after completing a seat rotation. The Captain elected the first two hour rest period. The International Relief Pilot was settling in with the flight plan and entering Flight Information Region (FIR) boundaries and 108 mile advance notification distance rings in the FIX page. I was watching the FMC entries was included in my normal instrument and outside scan. The flight was day time/VMC; course appeared clear of CB's; and no returns were being painted by the radar. The FP radar was selected to 80 NM and MP radar was selected to 160 NM; tilt was selected to (-)1 - (-)2 degrees ; brightness to full; gain adjusted to MAX. My attention was directed at normal scan of PFD; Navigation Display; enroute chart; FMC entries and outside.Within the scan; I glanced outside and instantly realized we would not clear the convective cloud boiling a few miles ahead. The cloud top was approximately FL340 and rapidly building. Immediately; I pushed heading SEL and selected a heading into the indicated wind; stated out loud; 'we are not going to clear that cloud!' As the airplane passed through about 10 degrees bank; we penetrated the very edge of the convective cloud. The airspeed jumped below the Vmin foot and stick shaker engaged. My reaction was; click off the autopilot; and maintain the level pitch attitude; existing bank angle; and guard the thrust levers. Within one second of cloud penetration; wind shear and hail were encountered. The windshield was cracked in several locations. We exited the cloud within just a few short seconds in a ten degree bank; about 10 - 15 degrees left of our original heading. I rolled the airplane back to the right through wings level; to its original course; I glanced at the engine instruments to verify normal indications. The airplane was returned to straight and level flight at our assigned altitude prior to re-engaging the autopilot. After a brief assessment of the airplanes condition; the 'Window Damage' checklist was accomplished. The Captain was called to the cockpit and briefed; the FME was briefed and the flight continued to its destination without further incident.Significant airframe and possible engine damage was discovered upon inspection after arrival at the destination airport.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.