Originally Posted by ChristianJ
I'd say that is how urban legends are created ....
A fuel tank is still to a large extent a 'Faraday cage', so RF would not have such a major effect.
ChristiaanJ, It was an extremely unusual and still unexplained event. I actually held one of the probes in as-removed condition in my hands. Having a probe come loose from its base is extremely unusual. That snap ring should have been good for the life of the aircraft. Having two on the same type aircraft on the same night, which were parked in close proximity is even stranger, particularly when you consider that the fuel indication systems were working OK on shutdown. These aircraft had been refueled immediately after landing. Unlike Avgas, JP-5 could form explosive mixtures with air depending on fuel temperature.
The presence of strong RF fields could sometimes be verified by the sparks playing on the links of the tiedown chains at night.
You would think that the skin of the aircraft would form an effective Farraday cage, but if the length of a panel is similar to a wavelength being transmitted, some coupling could occur. These panels were bedded in a thin layer of conformal sealant that tended to isolate them from the underlying structure. Immediately below were wire bundles, sensors, control cables and things like that. Without doing actual measurements, I'd say, "Never say never."