It was a cold rainy day in October of 2016. Huge balls of
hail crashed into the ground. In short, it wasn’t a good day to fly, and Wow
Air Flight 404 headed from Reykjavík, Iceland to Paris, France would soon
understand why… That iconic fuchsia-colored plane was struck by a massive bolt
of lightning not long after taking off! But did she go down? You’d think so
given that a single lightning bolt carries 1 billion volts of electric force
with it. That’s enough to power a 60-watt lightbulb for half a year! But it
doesn’t end there! Lightning is 5 times hotter than the surface of the sun, so
when it strikes, the air around the bolt heats up faster than the speed of
sound. The result: an ear-shattering crack of thunder that sounds more like a
nearby explosion. And they don’t call it lightning for nothing – the light is
almost blinding when you’re dangerously close to a strike. Hey, speaking of
which, what’s the craziest weather you’ve ever seen? Let me know down in the
comments! Anyway, lightning is one powerful force of Mother Nature. So just
imagine being on a flight and all that happening to the plane!? I’m almost too
afraid to find out what the damage would look like.
An exterior burnt black
like a piece of coal? A shredded fuselage? A fire onboard? No, nope, and
negative. Surprisingly, lightning doesn’t do much damage to aircraft! For one
thing, lightning doesn’t hit airplanes that often these days. Security rules
don’t allow pilots to fly into a storm front. The plane should go around a
thundercloud but never above or under it. First of all, they don’t usually fly
over them since the cloud tops can rise too high. And if they fly below it,
lightning will hit the plane for sure. I mean, it’s a hunk of pure metal moving
through the air – what would you expect!? But they’re able to avoid storms
thanks to special onboard weather radars. Ok, but if a lightning strike doesn’t
bring a plane down or do any threatening damage, then why do they avoid storms?
Well, it’s not because of the lightning itself but extreme turbulence that
might happen inside a storm. Turbulence can cause serious troubles, including loss
of control over the aircraft. The shaking can also cause heavy bags to fall out
of the overhead bins and possibly hurt someone. That’s why the rule is that
planes should never get closer than 20 miles to the center of a storm. It’s
marked red on the radar. Sometimes pilots have to diverge from the route for
dozens of miles just to avoid this heavy turbulence! As it is now, with the
existing safety rules in place, lightning hits a plane 1-2 times a year if the
aircraft is used regularly. But even then, it doesn’t usually lead to any
serious circumstances. Pilots can face lightning strikes once every 3,000 hours
in the air. That’s about one time in several years of working in commercial
aviation. Passengers spend much less time in the air, so it’s highly unlikely
that they’ll board the plane and go through what those folks headed from
Iceland to France got to witness! Out of 3,000 plane-related incidents since
2000, only 8 of them were caused by lightning strikes. Ok, that one’s clear.
It's not as if lightning hits airplanes daily. But when it does strike, how are
jumbo jets protected from it? Retired pilot Chris Hammond explains that before
an aircraft goes into service, it gets tested for all possible incidents. That
includes a lightning strike simulation.
When they just started using composite
materials for the plane’s skin (switching from the old aluminum exteriors),
they would fly into storm clouds on purpose to make sure that the new material is
just as safe. As Hammond says, the pictures and videos of that Iceland
lightning strike show exactly how everything should work. The bolt usually hits
the plane in the area of its nose and leaves near the tail and partially
through the wings. It does that because it chooses the path of least
resistance. Like between me and the cookie jar. Rather, it goes along the
plane’s metal skin but doesn’t get inside or damage any important parts. Now
that planes are covered not with pure aluminum but with composite materials,
they get a special layer of a conductive mesh made from copper foil. The mesh
looks like an electrically conductive canvass covering the plane’s skin. In
short, the aircraft becomes one giant Faraday cage. That’s a special mechanism
that English physicist and inventor Michael Faraday created way back in 1836 to
protect devices from electromagnetic radiation. The cage is still used for the
same purpose and works quite simply. When an outer electromagnetic field acts
upon the cage, free electrons in its metal start moving. That charge gets
redistributed around the cage’s exterior and cancels any radiation that tries
to get to the interior. But protecting airplanes from lightning doesn’t end
with the exterior materials. The internal systems and cables are also covered
with copper meshes. The fuel tanks get filled with a neutral gas so that they
don’t catch on fire. And finally, to lower the chances of coming into a
lightning bolt’s path, there are special static eliminators installed at the
wings’ edges. Static discharge flows off them and out into the air. Thanks to
that, the plane always stays neutrally charged and doesn’t attract lightning in
the first place. In case lightning does hit, it’ll likely leave through the
static eliminator. Some minor damage to the skin, radio, or electronic devices
might happen. But that’s not really an urgent issue since all the critical
devices are duplicated on board each plane. But like I said, even aircraft of
the newest designs are forbidden to fly into a storm front. After all, 96% of
all cases, even if they are rare, happen when the plane is inside a storm
cloud. If a strike did happen, pilots check all the systems. If anything goes
wrong, they land the plane at the nearest airport on the way.
As for the case
of those passengers on board that Wow flight, the aircraft just continued on to
its destination and landed safely in Paris 3½ hours later! Gee, did the
passengers all say “Wow”? And if that doesn’t convince you, in 2015, a
different plane flying from Reykjavik got struck by lightning and made it all
the way to its destination in Denver, Colorado! I think the takeaway here is,
to avoid lightning hitting your plane, don’t fly out of Reykjavik. Am I wrong? Of
course, even if the flight makes it to the destination and everything seems ok,
technicians still carefully examine the aircraft once it’s on the ground to see
if there’s any micro-damage to its skin. Spots where the lightning entered and
exited the plane’s exterior usually look like small melted holes no more than
half an inch in diameter. They can be fixed very quickly. Sounds easy enough,
but airlines lose millions of dollars because of flight delays caused by these
safety measures. At least now you know that sometimes you have to wait longer for
a good reason! But can passengers notice anything on board during this
impromptu light show? Sure, you can hear a loud strike and see flashes outside
the plane. The aircraft might even shake a bit with all that energy and force
going on outside. But this is a standard situation that poses no danger for the
flight. Lightning usually looks more frightening when you see it on the ground
and not on board the plane. Hammond, as an experienced pilot himself, recalls
that at the beginning of his career, lightning struck his plane as he was
coming into San Francisco. The cockpit went black as all the monitors shut
down. It sounds terrifying, right? Luckily, like all airplanes, he was equipped with
analog flight control devices. While the systems were coming back to life,
Hammond managed to land the aircraft manually. Talk about skill and keeping a
cool head! Now you know that lightning is not a problem in modern aviation. A
lot of design solutions protect airplanes from any severe damage, and the risk
of getting into an accident caused by lightning is next to zero. In fact, the
biggest risk caused by a lightning strike (other than any turbulence going on
out in that storm) is that passengers who notice it can get scared and start
panicking. But now you know there’s no need for that, so keep calm and fly
safe! Or do what I do, and hide in the bathroom… Nah, just kidding.
- Lightning doesn’t hit airplanes that often these days. Security rules don’t allow pilots to fly into a storm front. The plane should go around a thundercloud but never above or under it.
- Ok, but if a lightning strike doesn’t bring a plane down or do any threatening damage, then why do they avoid storms? Well, it’s not because of the lightning itself but extreme turbulence that might happen inside a storm.
- As it is now, with the existing safety rules in place, lightning hits a plane 1-2 times a year if the aircraft is used regularly. But even then, it doesn’t usually lead to any serious circumstances.
- Retired pilot Chris Hammond explains that before an aircraft goes into service, it gets tested for all possible incidents. That includes a lightning strike simulation.
- Out of 3,000 plane-related incidents since 2000, only 8 of them were caused by lightning strikes.
- The bolt usually hits the plane in the area of its nose and leaves near the tail and partially through the wings. It does that because it chooses the path of least resistance.
- Spots where the lightning entered and exited the plane’s exterior usually look like small melted holes no more than half an inch in diameter. They can be fixed very quickly.
- Even if the flight makes it to the destination and everything seems ok, technicians still carefully examine the aircraft once it’s on the ground to see if there’s any micro damage to its skin.
- But can passengers notice anything on board during this impromptu light show? Sure, you can hear a loud strike and see flashes outside the plane.
- In fact, the biggest risk caused by a lightning strike (other than any turbulence going on out in that storm) is that passengers who notice it can get scared and start panicking.
- Lightning is not a problem in modern aviation. A lot of design solutions protect airplanes from any severe damage, and the risk of getting into an accident caused by lightning is next to zero.
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