Lightning stories – do you have any?

…And for those who think I’m just looking for ‘dramatics’, you are wrong…

Perhaps we can be the judge of that if we can see the article first?

Flew over storms a number of times and its always a wonderful sight. Sometimes a little more nervy flying close to storms though.

On Wednesday night though, I had my closest encounter yet. I was on a night flight out of KUL. We’d been up in the air around 25 minutes when I noticed flashes outside and some minor turbulence. The captain came over the tanoy and said he was expecting a few showers and told us to buckle up. Now, I’m used to riding over storms or around them, but never have I gone through them. To be in a cloud when lightning strikes is a hell of a lot more scary than seeing it from above as everything lights up around you. At one point, there was a flash that ‘flashed’ around 6 times in a second. I was just waiting for the bang to confirm we’d been struck but nothing happened. Whether that means we weren’t struck or I just didn’t hear it I don’t know. What I do know is that the turbluence was incredibly minor when I would have expected something quite dramatic. Turbulence has no rules…

Thank you for your replies. Thanks Adamdowley for the link – very useful. And for those who think I’m just looking for ‘dramatics’, you are wrong. Andy/Skymonster’s account is just the thing I was looking for – a description of what it is like to be hit by lightning. So thanks Andy!
Celia

American 727-223 N6835 Chicago O’Hare to Seattle Tacoma, 23rd July 1993. Relatively clear day over the great plains (or at least it was based on the view I had from the right hand side) albeit with some bumps that were relatively benign but enough to stop cabin service. I was sat in the one from back row. All of a sudden, a massive bang/crack, a blue-uish flash from (as best I could see) near the front of the airplane and travelled extremely rapidly to the back where it disappeared. There was then just a minor burning smell left. Captain came on and said “we’ve been struck by lightning, no need to worry, we’re continuing to Seattle, blah, blah…” Event over.

Andy

Well yes. Last june. But wasn´t particularly frightening, since I know, it normally doesn´t cause crashes. It was a pre cruise flight from Madrid to Venice on a Iberworld A320. A short time before landing the pilot announced that a thunderstorm was forming over the airport of Venice, and we expected some turbulences and even lightening, but everything was under control.

The storm hadn´t broken out but we had to cross cumulus nimbus….no drammatical turbulences but some lightening around. Then a big bang on the left wing, a sudden bounce, flash into the cabin, some cries…and normal landing. Too quick to worry, but with a silence among the cruisers. As we parked the storm began….and planes were still approaching. Poor things¡

Again last august. In Havana again on an Iberworld A330 to Madrid. Tropical storms are not nice. So over the runway we have a huge storm. I was taking off in the cockpit (in the jump seat), and the pilot told he would avoid it, if it was when taking off. In take off, it moved south a bit, so we just caught a side, so we didn´t have turbulences no lightening, but some light hail on the fuselage. Strange felling though.

This is the extract from the Guinness Book of Records.

Worst Lightning Strike Death Toll
A total of 81 people aboard a Boeing 707-121 jet airliner on its way from Puerto Rico to Philadelphia died when the plane was struck by lightning near Elkton, Maryland, USA, on December 8, 1963. The airplane was in a holding pattern with five others, waiting for winds to subside before landing. A lightning strike ignited fuel vapor in a wing reserve tank, causing a mid-air explosion.

The last message from the striken Pan American World Airways jet – the Clipper Tradewind – was “Clipper out of control”, before it crashed, killing all 73 passengers and all 8 crew. As a result of this crash, the Federal Aviation Authority (FAA) insisted that all commercial jet airliners be fitted with lightning discharge wicks.

Not terribly convincing to me especially as the 707 was prone to the same fuel pump problems that caused the loss of TWA 800.

I’ve been struck by lightning several times and, as Wysiwyg states, it really is a non event. Really nothing memorable apart from the huge noise. People who claim a change in engine note are probably perceiving that due to the volume of the initial strike desensitising the hearing. There are some reports of a glow passing along the cabin associated with a strike but I don’t know anyone that has experienced it. Anyone who has seen the QED show on lightning will quickly appreciate that this really is a non event today.

Recently in the series “Airplane” a Southwest plane at the gate got hit while on camera. Inspection shown a hole on the belly.

No I don’t want to ‘dramatise’ – but give balanced account. I know that Blair’s plane was struck by lightning – and he didn’t bat an eyelid! But I have heard of planes crashing when they have been hit (Guinness book of records states that most number of people killed by lightning is 81 – and they were in passenger plane). I’m just looking for eyewitness account.
Celia

Here’s a truly balanced account…I have spent a total of around 16,000 hours with my feet off the ground as both cabin crew and flight crew. I have been hit by lightning on more than one occasion and the reality is (sorry to dissapoint) that there is no story. Aeroplanes are designed like Faraday cages where the charge passes straight round. Why should Blair have batted an eyelid?

Flying on a Pan-Am 727 Tampa-Miami we flew right through a thunderstorm, didnt get hit, but flashing all around and the turbulance..being a 12 year old wannabee pilot, it was much better than Disneys Space Mountain

I wass struck by lightening during my 2nd week of flyin as cabin crew, we just lifted off from AMS and we saw a large flash in the cabin, then a smell of burning, then the engines sounded to dim then pick back up we checked with the flight deck and was all ok,

when landing back in MAN all was fine bar a small mark on the eyebrow window ledge.

I have mentioned it before on the forum.
On one occasion a few years ago I was aboard an Ansett 737 at Sydney bound for Perth.There was a tremendous thunderstorm. We were delayed because only one remote runway was in use. The captain told us 7 Ansett aircraft had been struck by lightning. The dominant carrier was Qantas so I can only imagine they also had many strikes.
On another occaision I was on board a Malaysian 737 crossing the South China sea to Manila. We started to encounter huge build ups of CB. We kept on turning to avoid them but there were more and more until eventually it seemed nowhere left to go. It was horrendous. We landed in Manila in the middle of the storm and the airport was on emergency power.
The generators were in underground bunkers.
Just after we landed, the bunkers filled with water and the whole airfield blacked out.

I flew over a large thunderstorm on approach to an airport in Croatia (i think it was Pula that i was flying into). It was night time, so we could look down and see the lightning illuminating the clouds below us. amazing.

as has been suggested already, lightning strikes VERY rarely cause life threatening damage. according to the Aviation Safety Network, there have been only 14 accidents since 1951 with lightning (or more accurately, the storms and the weather conditions that come with thunderstorms) being a contributing factor, and 12 of those resulted in loss of life.

http://aviation-safety.net/database/dblist.php?Event=WXL

No I don’t want to ‘dramatise’ – but give balanced account. I know that Blair’s plane was struck by lightning – and he didn’t bat an eyelid! But I have heard of planes crashing when they have been hit (Guinness book of records states that most number of people killed by lightning is 81 – and they were in passenger plane). I’m just looking for eyewitness account.
Celia

Flying back from turkey a few years ago we had to divert round this huge storm over switzerland. (i think) As the pilot was banking away you could see the lighnting in the clouds.

I guess this is ok as long as your motives are not to, as you put it, “dramatise” something which is generally a non event, afterall we all know how the media “can” make a very very small incident sound like a major event, i.e. I have known them dramatise the undercarraige on fire due to the smoke created on touchdown, there is enough scaremongering going on as it is

Dean

Me neither but on an episode of “Airport” [BBC] – a bmi A321 was struck and it made a small hole in the fuselage. No danger to pax or crew – however the aircraft was given a fire engine escort down the runway.

Never been hit obviously but was flying LHR-AMM on an RJA A310 and we could be various large flashes of lighting under us in the clouds and the aircraft was also shaken quite a lot by thunder, or whatever it was.