diff --git a/hive-metastore/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/TestHiveMetastore.java b/hive-metastore/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/TestHiveMetastore.java
index c57b80f7960c..d0ee7bec4cca 100644
--- a/hive-metastore/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/TestHiveMetastore.java
+++ b/hive-metastore/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/hive/TestHiveMetastore.java
@@ -39,6 +39,7 @@
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.RetryingHMSHandler;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.TSetIpAddressProcessor;
 import org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.Table;
+import org.apache.iceberg.catalog.TableIdentifier;
 import org.apache.iceberg.common.DynConstructors;
 import org.apache.iceberg.common.DynMethods;
 import org.apache.iceberg.hadoop.Util;
@@ -193,6 +194,10 @@ public Table getTable(String dbName, String tableName) throws TException, Interr
     return clientPool.run(client -> client.getTable(dbName, tableName));
   }
 
+  public Table getTable(TableIdentifier identifier) throws TException, InterruptedException {
+    return getTable(identifier.namespace().toString(), identifier.name());
+  }
+
   private TServer newThriftServer(TServerSocket socket, int poolSize, HiveConf conf) throws Exception {
     HiveConf serverConf = new HiveConf(conf);
     serverConf.set(HiveConf.ConfVars.METASTORECONNECTURLKEY.varname, "jdbc:derby:" + getDerbyPath() + ";create=true");
diff --git a/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/HiveIcebergMetaHook.java b/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/HiveIcebergMetaHook.java
index 438ca8768d2c..582d3d6dc55c 100644
--- a/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/HiveIcebergMetaHook.java
+++ b/mr/src/main/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/HiveIcebergMetaHook.java
@@ -157,10 +157,18 @@ public void preDropTable(org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.Table hmsTable) {
         "TRUE".equalsIgnoreCase(hmsTable.getParameters().get(InputFormatConfig.EXTERNAL_TABLE_PURGE));
 
     if (deleteIcebergTable && Catalogs.hiveCatalog(conf, catalogProperties)) {
-      // Store the metadata and the id for deleting the actual table data
-      String metadataLocation = hmsTable.getParameters().get(BaseMetastoreTableOperations.METADATA_LOCATION_PROP);
-      this.deleteIo = Catalogs.loadTable(conf, catalogProperties).io();
-      this.deleteMetadata = TableMetadataParser.read(deleteIo, metadataLocation);
+      // Store the metadata and the io for deleting the actual table data
+      try {
+        String metadataLocation = hmsTable.getParameters().get(BaseMetastoreTableOperations.METADATA_LOCATION_PROP);
+        this.deleteIo = Catalogs.loadTable(conf, catalogProperties).io();
+        this.deleteMetadata = TableMetadataParser.read(deleteIo, metadataLocation);
+      } catch (Exception e) {
+        LOG.error("preDropTable: Error during loading Iceberg table or parsing its metadata for HMS table: {}.{}. " +
+            "In some cases, this might lead to undeleted metadata files under the table directory: {}. " +
+            "Please double check and, if needed, manually delete any dangling files/folders, if any. " +
+            "In spite of this error, the HMS table drop operation should proceed as normal.",
+            hmsTable.getDbName(), hmsTable.getTableName(), hmsTable.getSd().getLocation(), e);
+      }
     }
   }
 
@@ -178,7 +186,7 @@ public void commitDropTable(org.apache.hadoop.hive.metastore.api.Table hmsTable,
           Catalogs.dropTable(conf, catalogProperties);
         } else {
           // do nothing if metadata folder has been deleted already (Hive 4 behaviour for purge=TRUE)
-          if (deleteIo.newInputFile(deleteMetadata.location()).exists()) {
+          if (deleteMetadata != null && deleteIo.newInputFile(deleteMetadata.location()).exists()) {
             CatalogUtil.dropTableData(deleteIo, deleteMetadata);
           }
         }
diff --git a/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/TestHiveIcebergStorageHandlerNoScan.java b/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/TestHiveIcebergStorageHandlerNoScan.java
index 2b2eb6b59a2f..74d36efed9ad 100644
--- a/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/TestHiveIcebergStorageHandlerNoScan.java
+++ b/mr/src/test/java/org/apache/iceberg/mr/hive/TestHiveIcebergStorageHandlerNoScan.java
@@ -316,6 +316,34 @@ public void testDeleteBackingTable() throws TException, IOException, Interrupted
     }
   }
 
+  @Test
+  public void testDropTableWithCorruptedMetadata() throws TException, IOException, InterruptedException {
+    Assume.assumeTrue("Only HiveCatalog attempts to load the Iceberg table prior to dropping it.",
+        testTableType == TestTables.TestTableType.HIVE_CATALOG);
+
+    // create test table
+    TableIdentifier identifier = TableIdentifier.of("default", "customers");
+    testTables.createTable(shell, identifier.name(),
+        HiveIcebergStorageHandlerTestUtils.CUSTOMER_SCHEMA, FileFormat.PARQUET, ImmutableList.of());
+
+    // enable data purging (this should set external.table.purge=true on the HMS table)
+    Table table = testTables.loadTable(identifier);
+    table.updateProperties().set(GC_ENABLED, "true").commit();
+
+    // delete its current snapshot file (i.e. corrupt the metadata to make the Iceberg table unloadable)
+    String metadataLocation = shell.metastore().getTable(identifier)
+        .getParameters().get(BaseMetastoreTableOperations.METADATA_LOCATION_PROP);
+    table.io().deleteFile(metadataLocation);
+
+    // check if HMS table is nonetheless still droppable
+    shell.executeStatement(String.format("DROP TABLE %s", identifier));
+    AssertHelpers.assertThrows("should throw exception", NoSuchTableException.class,
+        "Table does not exist", () -> {
+          testTables.loadTable(identifier);
+        }
+    );
+  }
+
   @Test
   public void testCreateTableError() {
     TableIdentifier identifier = TableIdentifier.of("default", "withShell2");