Narrative:

As we arrived to the airport we knew that there was a line of thunderstorms approaching. Upon reaching the airplane I headed outside to do the aircraft preflight walk-around before it started raining; as the line of weather was relatively close and very ominous looking. As I completed my walk-around and was heading up the jetbridge stairs it started getting extremely windy due to a gust front from the line of weather. When I got back in the cockpit and started some preflight preparations I noticed that the gusty winds were rocking the aircraft around. I then saw a metal gate claim baggage cart blow over onto its side about 20 feet in front of the aircraft; cones being blown around; and other papers and debris getting blown across the ramp. At this time the captain suggested that the two of us and the three flight attendants head inside the terminal while this high wind was going on and rocking the aircraft around for safety purposes. After the captain stood up we noticed a good jolt of the aircraft. We both remarked that the wind was really crazy. I was the last one off of the plane and as I was exiting the aircraft at the bottom of the jetbridge I could hear a commotion outside from the ramp agents yelling. I thought that they were yelling at each other to get off of the ramp with the high winds that came on very suddenly and the rain beginning; with lightning in the area. I looked quickly out of one of the tiny windows in the jetbridge and noticed a bunch of the ramp guys standing around a set of metal; wheeled; air stairs that had apparently been blown into the number 1 engine of the aircraft. I called up to the captain who was toward the top of the jetbride to come back down. We headed downstairs to check out what was going on more closely. The airstairs were up against the aircraft and there was a hole in the side of the engine cowling due to impact damage from the airstairs. When we headed back inside the jetbridge the captain called dispatch and maintenance control; and I forwarded some pictures of the damage to the maintenance controller. Eventually a station mechanic came to check the damage. The mechanic told us that the engine cowl had to be changed per the engineering department; as the damage went through to the inside of the engine cowl and was out of tolerances for repair. We were given an aircraft swap to an aircraft inbound a few hours later and departed with the late flight on the new aircraft. At some point about 30 minutes after the damage occurred I asked ground control; out of curiosity; how high the wing gusts had gotten during the gust front. He relayed that it had gotten up to 43 knots. I also looked at a metar that showed a peak wind of 30 knots. There is obviously some discrepancy between the peak wind reported on the metar and what information I was told by ATC; so we are unclear as to how high the wind speed actually got. I do not know the position and orientation of the metal airstairs prior to the gust front incident. I did not notice them during my preflight walk around; so I don't know where they blew into the plane from.

Google
 

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 flight crew reported that during preflight; high winds blew an airstair into the Number 1 engine cowling.

Narrative: As we arrived to the airport we knew that there was a line of thunderstorms approaching. Upon reaching the airplane I headed outside to do the aircraft preflight walk-around before it started raining; as the line of weather was relatively close and very ominous looking. As I completed my walk-around and was heading up the jetbridge stairs it started getting extremely windy due to a gust front from the line of weather. When I got back in the cockpit and started some preflight preparations I noticed that the gusty winds were rocking the aircraft around. I then saw a metal gate claim baggage cart blow over onto its side about 20 feet in front of the aircraft; cones being blown around; and other papers and debris getting blown across the ramp. At this time the captain suggested that the two of us and the three flight attendants head inside the terminal while this high wind was going on and rocking the aircraft around for safety purposes. After the captain stood up we noticed a good jolt of the aircraft. We both remarked that the wind was really crazy. I was the last one off of the plane and as I was exiting the aircraft at the bottom of the jetbridge I could hear a commotion outside from the ramp agents yelling. I thought that they were yelling at each other to get off of the ramp with the high winds that came on very suddenly and the rain beginning; with lightning in the area. I looked quickly out of one of the tiny windows in the jetbridge and noticed a bunch of the ramp guys standing around a set of metal; wheeled; air stairs that had apparently been blown into the Number 1 engine of the aircraft. I called up to the captain who was toward the top of the jetbride to come back down. We headed downstairs to check out what was going on more closely. The airstairs were up against the aircraft and there was a hole in the side of the engine cowling due to impact damage from the airstairs. When we headed back inside the jetbridge the captain called dispatch and maintenance control; and I forwarded some pictures of the damage to the maintenance controller. Eventually a station mechanic came to check the damage. The mechanic told us that the engine cowl had to be changed per the engineering department; as the damage went through to the inside of the engine cowl and was out of tolerances for repair. We were given an aircraft swap to an aircraft inbound a few hours later and departed with the late flight on the new aircraft. At some point about 30 minutes after the damage occurred I asked ground control; out of curiosity; how high the wing gusts had gotten during the gust front. He relayed that it had gotten up to 43 knots. I also looked at a METAR that showed a peak wind of 30 knots. There is obviously some discrepancy between the peak wind reported on the METAR and what information I was told by ATC; so we are unclear as to how high the wind speed actually got. I do not know the position and orientation of the metal airstairs prior to the gust front incident. I did not notice them during my preflight walk around; so I don't know where they blew into the plane from.

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.