Originally Posted by
MichaelKPIT
Yes indeed. Pan Am 214 in 1963 and TW891 win 1959 to name just two...
Exactly.
Lightning protection is critical in modern aircraft. The reason we've not had recent loses due to lightning is in no small part due to lessons learned from the above noted accidents.
Even now, lightning protection isn't 100% - a major strike will still cause damage (composite structure being particularly vulnerable). I recall reading about an incident perhaps 20 years ago - 757 IIRC - severe lightning strike to the nose, although the lightning protection worked as designed, one of the pilots was reportedly temporarily incapacitated by the induced EMI, and the other pilot was "affected". Fortunately they were able to land safely and apparently suffered no long-term effects.
I was in the flight deck of a 747-8 during a flight test shortly before I retired when we took a lightning strike - scared the crap out of me
. Apparently attached to the nose and exited out a wing root (doing a job on the wing root fairing in the process). The pilots were pretty unhappy with ATC - they'd directed us right into a cell, then had us do a spiraling descent while in the cell...