There’s some pretty incredible video of a Wow Air Airbus A330-300 flying through a lightning storm enroute from Iceland to Paris on Monday.
While on average it’s said that every commercial plane is struck by lightning at least once a year, I believe it’s been over 40 years since a crash has been attributed to a lightning strike. The fuselage of a plane will conduct electricity and allow it to trasmit from the strike and generally out the tail.
While takeoff had been delayed due to weather, the aircraft continued on its way to Paris without further incident.
Last year there was a ‘striking’ incident on a Reykjavik to Denver Icelandair flight that caused a gaping hole in the plane’s nose — the aircraft flew 8 hours and the damage wasn’t even noticed until arrival.
Meanwhile earlier this year a China Southern Boeing 737-800 was struck by lightning minutes after passengers had disembarked the aircraft. That one was a bit scarier, at least watching the video.
(HT: @pir8z40)
Never any mention of exactly what those on the plane experience. Anyone know?
an airplane is essentially a big faraday cage. lightning effectively poses no threat because the electricity stays outside.
but it’s a different story on the ground, with fuel lines and other equipment.