Severe thunderstorms accompanied by quarter-size hail struck Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport on Friday night, 27 June, forcing Delta Air Lines to pull roughly 100 aircraft from service for damage inspections and divert about 90 inbound flights. The disruption rippled into Saturday: FlightAware recorded nearly 400 cancellations—rising above 450 by some counts—at the world’s busiest passenger hub. Delta, which operates the majority of departures at Atlanta, scrubbed about 14 % of its schedule. The storm’s intensity prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to evacuate most controllers from the airport’s tower, leaving a skeleton crew to manage arrivals. Delta said technicians worked overnight to examine the hail-pelted jets and return them to service by Saturday morning, but cautioned that several hundred additional cancellations were likely as it rebuilt its schedule. The carrier issued travel waivers and urged customers to monitor flight status. The episode comes at the start of the Independence Day travel rush, when AAA projects 5.8 million Americans will fly between 28 June and 6 July. Atlanta alone expects more than 4 million passengers during the nine-day period, underscoring the broader impact of the weather-related disruption. Storms have continued to hamper U.S. aviation in July. A Delta Airbus A330 operating Flight 169 from Barcelona to New York on 12 July returned to Spain after hail dented its nose, and the FAA on 14 July warned of thunderstorm-related delays at major hubs including Dallas-Fort Worth, Tampa and Fort Lauderdale.