Lightening strikes airplane

I've never seen it so new to me. Pretty amazing to see that.
 
It probably fazed some underwear though.
 
That was a good strike. I bet most of them didn't even know.

Although maintenance will find it.
 
Re: Lightning strikes airplane

BigBadLou said:
Lightning strike checklist:
- controls - responding
- engine(s) - running
- radio(s) - functioning
- underwear - dry
Click to expand...

1) Well, three out of four's not bad...
2) DEPENDS on your situation...
3) Say, my hiccups are gone!
4) The captain will now dim the cabin lights...
 
I was on a Dash-8 that got hit a few years ago. I had just settled in with my eyes closed. I saw the flash right through my closed eyelids. Dropped both generators off-line (according to the captain when he finally had time to say something on the PA). I didn't see any external damage when I got off at PHL.
 
Composite aircraft don't seem to do so well, unless specifically designed for it.

http://www.airtalk.org/lightning-strikes-gliders-vt45863.html

The one I am most familiar with, it blew out the canopy and momentarily fused all the rod ends in the controls as well as completely burning up the grounding straps.
After wards all the controls felt like the ball bearings in the rod ends had arc marks (rolling on gravel) on them, because they did.

Brian
 
This sort of thing happens a lot. Usually you see High-Intensity Radiated Fields (HIRF) and lightning lumped together as a topic. I believe the way the electrical energy travels through the hull is usually modeled as skin effect. A Faraday cage is for static charge.

I've seen pits all down the fuselage where the lightning initially bridges the gap forward in the fuselage, then just skips it's way down the hull.

Other times I've seen it enter and exit making large holes at entry and exit points. It will easily remove or just electrically fail static wicks.

Years ago one of the guys on a crew I was on was doing a layover check on a 19 seat Jetstream 32 twin turboprop. First thing he noticed was the propeller looked like someone tool a bite out of it. We started looking and found exit holes in the tip of the vertical stab and trailing edge of the flap.

We were operating power by the hour with Garrett and they had us pull the engine because you couldn't trust the bearings anymore. Crew and passengers never reported anything.
 
I know one day while flying in very, very dark clouds and all of a sudden it was like flash bulbs going off at random from every direction? Time to get on the ground. A friend was about 10 minutes ahead of me. I told him I was turning and running. He was almost to the destination and kept going. He crashed while landing. He described winds going from calm to all hell breaking loose while on short final. True story.
 
Ghery said:
I was on a Dash-8 that got hit a few years ago. I had just settled in with my eyes closed. I saw the flash right through my closed eyelids. Dropped both generators off-line (according to the captain when he finally had time to say something on the PA). I didn't see any external damage when I got off at PHL.
Click to expand...


So you're saying it was the Captain's leg to fly and it interrupted your nap in the right seat? Tee hee. LOL. Kidding. Kidding. (Kinda.) ;)
 
I was flying a C-414 and was hit by lightning. It happened so quickly I didn't know what happened. There was a bright flash then the autopilot disconnected and the radios went all static for a few minutes. The ancient Bendex radar went blank for a few minutes as well. ATC reported that my transponder dropped off their screen but after 15 minutes it was back up and working.

After landing all we could find was one small crack in the bondo on the nose cone that wasn't there before.

Years ago I was driving a tanker hauling gasoline and was hit by lightning. It cracked my left outside mirror and blew out my CB radio. It did give me a good scare. The lightning and thunder was simultaneous. I stopped on the side of the road and checked for other damage, then had a cold beer before continuing. (I would not suggest drinking and driving now, but that is what we did in Texas back then)
 
Look up eastern airlines (707??) struck by lightning over Elkton , Maryland some years back. Blew up killing everyone.
 
When an aircraft is struck by "lightening" you need to have a new weight and balance done, right? ;)
 
We had a KC97 refueler hit. According to the pilot a ball of fire rushed thru the aircraft and went out the tail. It knocked off the radome. The co pilot turned in his wings never to fly again. Serious stuff.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top