Lightning hole

Steve

Steve

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This will probably put Mother Nature on the TSA no-fly list...

ATT00049.jpg


ATT00046.jpg


ATT00052.jpg
 
And then there's the new underpants needed by the pilot. Wow! That's quite a hole. Had to be LOUD.
 
Ted DuPuis said:
It probably was an "Oh ****" moment, but it wasn't lightning. See:

http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20090303X74824&key=1

It appears to have been an electrical fire.

That really seems far too big of a hole for lightning to have caused.
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I was gonna say!! If that was lightning alone, it's a miracle any of our planes are still airworthy! Apparently the Canadians don't believe in stack wicks (or at least not enough of them), because the Qs are absolute static magnets. Our first airframe was struck (twice) within it's first four days on the line. About this time last year we had three planes get struck within about 1.5 hrs of each other (our Beech was in the mx shop at the time, too...those guys were not happy)! Only one of our planes has never been struck by lightning. It actually does surprisingly little damage, considering the nature of what's happening.
 
I guess the thread title should be "Lightening Hole" ... ;)
 
How do they fix that now? Replace the whole skin panel? Rivet a patch on it? Duct tape across it? Bondo?

Just curious...
 
Cap'n Jack said:
How do they fix that now? Replace the whole skin panel? Rivet a patch on it? Duct tape across it? Bondo?

Just curious...
Click to expand...

More than likely the manufacturer will get involved and prepare a fix and provide documentation for the FAA. Perhaps even do a temporary fix and fly the plane back to the factory.

I would suspect the fix will involve going through the entire electrical system as well as x-raying all the skins looking for hidden damage.
 
The false rumor that it was lightning sure spread across the internet as fast as lightning! I got the pic in an email and being skeptical, Googled some stuff, & voilà, the discussion of the accident report appeared on an airline pilot message board.

I feel better knowing it wasn't lightning!
 
Teller1900 said:
It actually does surprisingly little damage, considering the nature of what's happening.
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You're absolutely right. Almost all the strikes I've seen have been repaired by drilling the hole out and putting in a rivet. I've seen up to seven of these fixes in a row on one aircraft. Some particular aircraft just seem to attract the lightning mores than others.
 
Latest issue of IFR had a great article on lightning protection systems in aircraft and what happens during a lightning strike...
 
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