Overkill?
Is this not an overkill? I do recall in the military that there could be no refuelling whilst lightning was observed visually in the near vicinity (or with a TS parked overhead) but downing tools completely??
Thoughts? What happens elsewhere?
Lightning strands flights at airport
Thousands of passengers were stuck in planes at Sydney Airport last night because ground staff do not work on the tarmac when there is lightning.
The airport said about a dozen domestic and international flights were caught in the delay, but Qantas said almost 40 of its planes were affected.
It is understood that some passengers were forced to stay in the planes for more than an hour. There were also big queues of frustrated passengers at check-in counters.
A spokeswoman for the airport, Shannon Kliendienst, said that airlines had a policy that no ground staff would work outside when lightning threatened.
A weather warning was issued at 6pm yesterday and lifted at 7.30pm after a series of electrical storms swept through the city.
"There's not much you can do about the weather," Ms Kliendienst said. "When there's bad weather, people are quite used to the fact that they can't do anything about it."
One passenger whose plane was stranded on the tarmac for more than hour said that the captain had announced that there were lightning strikes within a five-kilometre radius of the airport. This meant that no staff would handle ground equipment for flights either landing or taking off.
Qantas said that 33 domestic flights could not park or take off, while six of its international flights were stranded.