Video: flight-ning

[Joe Zemek]

Didn't see this already posted; apologies if so.

From the NWS Pueblo website:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/pub/ltg/plane_japan.php

Dramatic video of an airliner completing a circuit. Wow.

 

[Anthony Silver]

Pretty amazing stuff. I bet those passengers were all looking for new pairs of drawers!

It's my understanding that airplanes are usually pretty safe when affected by lightning strikes. I dont believe there has ever been a crash caused directly by lightning (then again I haven't done too much research on the topic either, so I could be wrong).

 

[Mike Parker]

I bet those passengers were all looking for new pairs of drawers!

Actually, you would be surprised how people react in a setting that they know they have absolutely zero control over. I was in a plane that was struck by lightning almost exactly like the video. It was a Delta flight out of DFW many years ago. When the bolt struck, it was a very quick flash and a very muffled and quick "boom" and then it was over. Believe it or not, there was no panic or screaming, just a lot of people looking around at each other. Since there was no noticeable change in the planes behavior i.e. lights flashing, sudden drop, or loss of air pressure and it happened so fast, there really wasn't time to get scared. As soon as we realized what had happened, we also realized that we were still safe. After we reached flying altitude the captain came over the speakers and confirmed that it was a lightning strike and assured us that the plane had received no damage. He said that it had entered the nose of the plane by his seat and "probably" exited the rear. Thanks for posting that link, I have always wondered what that would look like.

 

[Mike Johnson]

I wonder if David D. was on this flight! (;

Mike

 

[Dennis Gulley]

I have worked in aviation maintenance most of my adult life and have worked on private business jets the last 14 years. We get jets in occasionally that have had a lightning strikes and supprisingly the only evidence that it
happened is there may be a small piece of paint about 1/16 of in inch across blown out where it exited the aircraft. Many times the crew may not even know they were hit. They use to say that if you were hit that the engines would have to come off, be dissasembled and have all the bearings inspected for arcing and being magnitized but modern aircraft have lightning protection built in that does a good job protecting them. Thats not to say that damage cannot occur, much of it can dependant on many factors, where it hit etc.

Dennis