Lightning Strikes a Plane?

[Vulcan59]

Here is an article about a plane being hit by lightning during it's descent. Many years ago, the plane I was flying (B744) was hit by lightning on takeoff out of Hong Kong airport. Tremendous loud sound and a bright flash right below the nose gear where I thought the lightning had hit. On landing, I went out to have a look and found that the lightning had struck on the fuselage near the nose gear. Hardly any damage except for a darkened patch around the area where the lightning had hit.

So how is it that this Westjet plane in the article above "suffered considerable damage and the plane was flown without passengers to Vancouver for repairs"? Hit by a meteorite perhaps?

 

[bngenoh]

Hmm Vulcan, you may be on to something because according to the article:

Grateful Dead archivist David Lemieux is accustomed to loud blasts of sound and light, but when a huge fireball rocked his WestJet flight into Victoria Thursday, it was a psychedelic show unlike any he’s ever seen.

[...]

“It was a huge blast of fire on the left side,” said Lemieux, of Victoria. “It was so bright it looked like it was inside the plane.

[...]

“It sounded like a really loud explosion, a quick blast,”

[...]

“There was a huge, jarring shake to the plane” and “a collective shriek,”

[...]

Once passengers saw that the plane was still flying steadily and a flight attendant confirmed “in a nervous voice” that it was a lightning strike, all was calm, he said.

Don't know how the flight attendant was able to "confirm that it was a lightning strike" because the article said, "It’s a rare occurrence." Their definition of rare might be the reason though.

How did you tell it was a lightning strike on your plane Vulcan?

 

[Vulcan59]

How did you tell it was a lightning strike on your plane Vulcan?

Well we took off into cloudy skies and I actually saw the bolt of lightning strike the plane. :)

 

[bngenoh]

Well we took off into cloudy skies and I actually saw the bolt of lightning strike the plane. :)

Anything else maybe like what is described above like turbulence, shriek, etc?

 

[Vulcan59]

Well we took off into cloudy skies and I actually saw the bolt of lightning strike the plane. :)

Anything else maybe like what is described above like turbulence, shriek, etc?

Well, it was right in front of the aircraft so I doubt any passenger heard it, but the two of us in front almost jumped out of our seats. :O

 

[Vulcan59]

FWIW, here is a comparison of one such event not to long ago. - Source

Quoting the article cited above,

Former Delta Captain Kevin Hiatt experienced a lightning strike while on approach to Salt Lake City. "We were on the approach," Hiatt said, " We saw a bright light, and then you hear this very, very loud crack." Hiatt says the instruments flickered slightly – but then keep right on working. After the plane landed safety, Hiatt took a look at the fuselage, "I was really fairly surprised to see the small brown and black pockmarks all the way across the fuselage, which really meant that we did take a pretty good strike." (Similar to what I saw.)

Hiatt, who is now Executive Vice President of the Flight Safety Foundation, said that damage was cosmetic. The plane was checked out thoroughly and found to have no mechanical problems.

If there is damage from a lightning strike, it is usually minor. More often than not, the plane emerges unscathed. Planes are designed to withstand a strike.

If a bolt of lightning hits a jet's wing, the electricity is deflected. It races along the plane's aluminum skin and eventually into the atmosphere. All the critical systems on a plane, the wiring, electronics and the fuel tank, have extra shielding to guard against possible damage.

While the collision between an airplane and nature may look spectacular, it has been nearly 50 years since a plane in the U.S. was actually brought down by lightning.

 

[bngenoh]

Former Delta Captain Kevin Hiatt experienced a lightning strike while on approach to Salt Lake City. "We were on the approach," Hiatt said, " We saw a bright light, and then you hear this very, very loud crack." Hiatt says the instruments flickered slightly – but then keep right on working. After the plane landed safety, Hiatt took a look at the fuselage, "I was really fairly surprised to see the small brown and black pockmarks all the way across the fuselage, which really meant that we did take a pretty good strike." (Similar to what I saw.)

Hiatt, who is now Executive Vice President of the Flight Safety Foundation, said that damage was cosmetic. The plane was checked out thoroughly and found to have no mechanical problems.

If there is damage from a lightning strike, it is usually minor. More often than not, the plane emerges unscathed. Planes are designed to withstand a strike.

So damage from lightning strikes are negligible huh, compare that with this quote from the first article:

No one was injured and the plane landed safely. But the fuselage suffered considerable damage and the plane was flown without passengers to Vancouver for repairs, said Terry Stewart of the Victoria International Airport Authority.

Maybe the reporter took a creative license in their reporting of the damage, maybe it wasn't a lightning strike, or maybe lightning has become way more powerful.

P.s. That is an epic picture Vulcan.

 

[Al Today]

[...]
So damage from lightning strikes are negligible huh,
[...]

For the same reason a bird can sit on high power lines. They are not grounded...

 

[Biomiast]

Has anybody seen the Pakistani plane crash? It is said to be an old plane flying in a bad weather, but what caught my attention is eyewitness reports:

Several eyewitnesses at the crash site were seen on Pakistani TV channels saying lightning had struck the aircraft which began bursting into flames and crashed.

Some eyewitnesses have been quoted as saying that they saw a ball of fire in the air before the aircraft crashed.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/331357/20120421/pakistan-plane-crash-flight-islamabad-karachi-bhoja.htm#ixzz1sf2pJ9Xa

So, after what has been discussed on this thread, could it me a meteor that hit the plane?

 

[bngenoh]

Some eyewitnesses have been quoted as saying that they saw a ball of fire in the air before the aircraft crashed.

So, after what has been discussed on this thread, could it me a meteor that hit the plane?

hmm Biomiast,

From where i am standing, it's very likely was a bolide, given the eyewitness testimony. But the reported bad weather just made it worse.

Curiously, i am reminded about how Eurocontrol shut down Northern Europe's air space with the eruption of Iceland's Eyjafjallajökull volcano, maybe someone(s) in the know were doing a practice run, so that when air traffic needed to be grounded because of meteoric activity, they would be ready.

Just saying.....

 

[Vulcan59]

Newer reports seem to suggest windshear as the cause of the accident and given the weather conditions prevailing at the time, it sure seems likely. Guess we'll just have to wait for more reports and if it was a meteoroid that struck the airplane causing the accident, I doubt that will be in the official report!