Evening Star
10th Jun 2003, 16:32
First, a news report:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/2976722.stm
Take that report with as many pinches of salt as you like, especially the comments by the MyTravel woman.
Anyway, my interest is because I am a thunderstom observer for TORRO (http://www.torro.org.uk/) and observed the storm on Sunday. One interesting event was hearing an aircraft taking off from Newcastle at the height of the storm. At no point did I see the aircraft, but from the sound I infer it passing quite close to the currently active storm cell (I cannot believe anybody would want to fly through a cell if at all possible). Immediately following there was an exceptional lightning discharge. Now there is a fair amount of evidence that aircraft transiting through or close to an active cell can precipitate a lightning event, and that such events will produce a higher energy lightning event.
Still writing up my report and, if anybody is interested, when finished I can add it to this post. As part of my report is to comment upon any storm damage, what would be good is if anybody connected with this incident could provide further details. Typically my interest would be such matters as location of damage, inferred lightning transit path through the aircraft and and evidence of electrical anomolies. I know such matters will eventually appear in an AAIB bulletin, but advance knowledge will help me in an early submission. Suffice to say, the information is for research purposes in helping to understand thunderstorms. However, if you feel it is inappropriate to post on open forum, post a private message here or email me at mailto:[email protected]. Many thanks.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/tyne/2976722.stm
Take that report with as many pinches of salt as you like, especially the comments by the MyTravel woman.
Anyway, my interest is because I am a thunderstom observer for TORRO (http://www.torro.org.uk/) and observed the storm on Sunday. One interesting event was hearing an aircraft taking off from Newcastle at the height of the storm. At no point did I see the aircraft, but from the sound I infer it passing quite close to the currently active storm cell (I cannot believe anybody would want to fly through a cell if at all possible). Immediately following there was an exceptional lightning discharge. Now there is a fair amount of evidence that aircraft transiting through or close to an active cell can precipitate a lightning event, and that such events will produce a higher energy lightning event.
Still writing up my report and, if anybody is interested, when finished I can add it to this post. As part of my report is to comment upon any storm damage, what would be good is if anybody connected with this incident could provide further details. Typically my interest would be such matters as location of damage, inferred lightning transit path through the aircraft and and evidence of electrical anomolies. I know such matters will eventually appear in an AAIB bulletin, but advance knowledge will help me in an early submission. Suffice to say, the information is for research purposes in helping to understand thunderstorms. However, if you feel it is inappropriate to post on open forum, post a private message here or email me at mailto:[email protected]. Many thanks.