Lightning Strikes Plane (Incrediable footage)

This is some pretty amazing footage of a aircraft being struck by lightning. Im amazed it actually withstood the strike really. As I dont know much about how that works, would it have taken it as well if it was higher up? I mean it seems the lightning grounded itself because it was still low.

Would the people on board of felt this in anyway?

Is very good footage is to be honest very spectacular to watch

i always thought that lightning dont effect a [plane but of cours i'm no expert in that

Wow...and it just kept going? I would think it might have had some kind of issue after something like that...

I know, Im no expert either, but I wonder if it had been a smaller plane would it have been able to handle it as well.
Hopefully the experts will explain it as they usually do!

Thanks for the comment!

Holy crap that was insane!!!! I would think the people inside would have felt something maybe like a small electrical current or something they thought was turbulence. Great video though!!!

wow, thats a great find, always wondered what happened when a plane got struck, pretty cool when you see the exit point of the strike......could this be someone testing the "star wars" programme......wait...I am only joking..hehehehe...star and flag for awesomeness.

Thanks and peace.

I've been within a hundred feet of a lighting strike and the noise alone seemed almost deadly, I can't imagine how loud it'd be getting struck inside a big aluminum tube...

WOW!

A year or so ago when I was flying back from Australia the wing of the plane was struck by lightening 3 times just before we came to land in Heathrow.

Whilst I was laughing at peoples reactions I was also crapping myself.

Suffice to say that we all clapped the crew when we landed!

Half an hour after we landed, another plane had an accident on the runway as it landed.

The weather was terrible and have never felt turblence like it.

Apparantly we were lucky

I'm pretty sure that airplanes absorb the strike or have some kind of "static electricity" to deflect the strike"

Those metal rods that come out back from the wings earth it according to budding pilot son. Some smaller planes have them too.
Still scarey to watch and amazing at the same time.

I'm sure that there were lots of new trousers needed when that plane landed!

Fact is though that being in a metal vehicle (plane, car, train etc.) is probably the safest place to be in a thunderstorm.

When lightning strikes it always follows the path of least resistance which is always around the outside of the metal fuselage. Its akin to being in a Faraday cage.

Its totally safe no matter at what height the plane is.

Airplanes have things called static dischargers on their exterior. This stops the surge from the lightning affecting electrical equipment and other critical instruments. The passengers wouldnt have noticed much more than flash and probably a loud clap of thunder due to the proximity of the lightning

Planes are designed to take lightning strikes, otherwise a lot more would be falling out of the skies.

According to Scientific American, approximately every plane in the U.S. commercial fleet gets hit at least once a year.

The last plane to actually crash due to being struck by lightning happened in 1967 when a fuel tank exploded.

Scientific American article

That's a pretty impressive piece of footage captured there. My Dad was in a 757 in August flying from UK to Malaga (Spain).

Captain tannoyed to the passengers about 40 mins from ETA that they were approaching slightly stormy weather and could experience strong turbulence. About 10 minutes later the craft was hit twice inside of several minutes. From his window seat he said it looked as though it struck the wing, but couldn't tell exactly as the ''flash'' was too bright. He said they experienced a rapid drop in altitude immediately after the first strike, but slightly less the second time.

Captain soon after event confirmed and reassured passengers that they had lost a little over 200 feet in altitude on the first strike and just below 100 feet on the second but were in good order. Turbulence only lastet a few mintues during and after.

Dad doesn't like flying at all, he doesn't have a phobia of it, but needs to take calming tablets or get ''well-oiled'' before take-off just to ease his nerves. Also my uncle sat next to him, although he enjoys flying, spoke of the event. They both said it was strange seeing grown men (perceivably masculine and mentally toughened) scream and panic like headless chickens when it happened and during the strong turbulence. My Dad however, throughout this crazy little experience says ironically that it strengthened his confidence in flying because although the craft dipped somewhat and went through some horrible turblence - the worst he's experienced in god know how many 100's of hours as a passenger, he felt it handled it well and just seemed to ''ride through it''. He said he had initial moments of ''oh god, this is it'', but after seeing many around him screaming and beginning to cry, he didn't feel the need to panic, just accept it. My uncle said he wanted to be sick during it out of fear, but couldn't scream or cry out because there's nothing he could do.

Normal cheers and applause on landing, but Dad doesn't experience quite the level of fear he once had as he admitted openly. Though, he'd still prefer not to fly given the chance.

Captain on exit confirmed to passengers that they should be reassured that nothing was damaged during or after the strike it was a ''temporary jolt'' as he put it.

This sort of thing happens literally every day of the week and there is no cause for concern. In the summer storm season I personally would do around one lightning strike inspection per week. I have also seen aircraft hit on the tarmac numerous times. Aircraft flying in from tropical places like Darwin are especially likely to suffer hits (well the city is referred by meteorologists as the lightening capital!) on an almost daily basis. After reporting a lightening strike by the aircrew there are mandatory inspections that need to be carried out on the airframe. The most common damage you find is fried rivets and usually in multiple locations. Quite often you will find a pattern on the airframe where every 4-8" or there about's will be a cooked fastener and this may extend over a distance anywhere between 2' to almost the entire length of the plane almost like a "join the dots" drawing. Usual remedial action is to replace fasteners during a layover or A/phase check. Interestingly I have noticed some aircraft are particularly vulnerable to strikes with the 767 coming to mind. Another observation is that certain parts of a particular aircraft will get struck much more often than others for example 747's often get a lot of hits on the nose in particular below the cockpit between the two decks if you are ever boarding an aircraft and notice little red painted dots on a rivet this will indicate that a lightning strike has occurred there and it is highlighted for repeat inspections. RR RB-211's seem to particularly attract attention to the trailing edge of the cold stream fan bypass duct. You can tell one that has been hit when you look at it on the ground and it has a small half moon scallop about the size of your thumb on the trailing edge, often in multiple locations.

LEE.

Originally posted by onehuman
Would the people on board of felt this in anyway?

cool video, I doubt the passengers felt anything, except excitement after it happened, because they surely heard it and probably saw it too.

I remember seeing something about a helicopter needing to be redesigned due to vulnerability from a lightining strike, but most airplanes can withstand them. Even well designed helicopters are more vulnerable than planes.

Originally posted by thebozeian
The most common damage you find is fried rivets and usually in multiple locations.

I didn't know so many fasteners had to be replaced though, so thanks for sharing that.

What happens? Usually not much. When struck by lightning, the electrical energy travels through the metal skin of the aircraft and is dissapated via the static wicks.

... Lightning strikes are more common than one might think. Statistics show that the commercial airlines average one hit per aircraft per year or an average of once every 1500 flight hours.

Link

Read the link in this post as well.

Thanks for the great explanations and nice links!

All today while I was at work I was thinking about it. Thought it might have been funny if someone was trying to sooth someone on the flight that was scared to fly and they said something like,"I swear it safe, May I get struck by lightning right now if it isnt!"

I have had a couple of lighting strikes while flying weather missions. Its not as loud as you would think, even though the strike is close by. Not much real damage, the strikes goes through the aircraft metal skin mainly, and dissipated via static wicks too. We had melted wicks, and it left burn marks on the metal.