4 Ryanair planes hit by lightning

[captjns]

Good hunting Desk Driver.


Here is the story from CNN's web site

4 Ryanair planes hit by lightning (http://cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/02/20/ryanair.lightning.ap/index.html) (02.20.2006)
Lightning struck four planes operated by low-cost Irish airline Ryanair, the company said Monday.

LONDON, England (AP) -- Lightning struck four planes operated by low-cost Irish airline Ryanair, the company said Monday.
Ryanair officials said lightning struck the planes as they descended to the northern coast of Spain on Sunday afternoon. Three of the planes landed in the city of Santander while another was forced to divert to Valladolid, near Madrid.
"I would say it is highly unusual for four planes to be struck by lightning in the same day," said Peter Sherrard, a spokesman for the airline.
Engineers inspected each of the aircraft in Santander and a flight to Frankfurt was cleared for departure after a six-hour delay. The two remaining flights -- one to Rome and the other to London -- were canceled.
"It was all a bit strange as no other airline seemed to have suffered from lightning strikes and later we were told there had been a technical fault," said Michael Harrington, 60, a passenger on one of the canceled flights bound for London.
Harrington said Ryanair officials told passengers that the delays were not caused by lightning strikes or by technical problems but by "operational problems at the company."
However, Ryanair said Monday the four planes were struck by lightning.
Last week, Ryanair announced it was offering millions of cheap tickets as it struck back against allegations in a television documentary that it has been lax in respecting air safety and security rules.

[Speedpig]

"I would say it is highly unusual for four planes to be struck by lightning in the same day,"

No it's not... is it?
Maybe for the same airline.

[Rosta Change!]

God works in mysterious and wonderous ways !!

[Fluffy flyer]

I must be honest I have worked for the company in question and have also operated in parts of the world were the thunderstorms tower to + 40,000 ft.

A health respect needs to be adopted for these beasts of Mother Nature

I did notice a general lack of awareness and understanding among the crew I flew with when it came to thunderstorms. They often didn’t feel it important or necessary to giving that red section of the thunderstorm plenty of distance.

4 a/c of same company on same day sounds a bit fishy, but if you think about the number of Ryanair a/c out there flying every day then its not impossible that 4 Ryanair a/c could have passed or been caught in the same weather formation in a relatively short space of time from each other but going to different destinations.

Just a though, happy flying, from thunderstorm country.

[wawkrk]

A few years ago I was aboard an Ansett flight in Sydney waiting to depart for Perth. There was a severe storm at the time. The captain apologised for the delays as we had to queue for a remote runway.
He said 7 Ansett aircraft had been struck by lightning.
But how many belong Quantas who outnumbered Ansett 2 to 1 ?
And the rest!

[Loose rivets]

My guess is that so many young captains now have never had a real thrashing in a storm. Try spending a couple of hours in a line of CBs--thinking the wings can't possibly stay on, and it gives one a healthy respect for thunder-bumps.

I wrote something about rational v irrational fear a couple of years ago, in which I described one particular flight. (Viscount to Barcelona.) The horizon bar frequently disappeared off the scene and the controls were occasionally hard against the stops in all possible directions. We were thrown out of the tops, and dropped below MSA over the mountains. We were 45 mins on one twenty min leg...not that we could hear the beacons anyway. (No, we didn't have radar for some time)

Having cleared the CBs, a bolt then blew a 4" hole through the wing. It went round the fuel bags? and out the other side--dead in line. Odd that.

That was actually quite funny. My captain had just struck his Zippo for the first fag of the night, the exact second that the biggest bang I have ever heard happened. His face, illuminated by the shaking flame, was priceless.

Bad old days the 60s, but a lot of lessons learnt.

[JW411]

My record so far is 6 lightning strikes in a month. All of them were in the New York/Long Island area and Ryanair had not even been invented!

[captplaystation]

Unfortunately this is far from rare. Myself, numerous colleagues,and the engineers who attend to the subsequent scrapes and holes, feel that the 800 seems to be particularly subsceptible to Lightning strikes ( and I mean the 800 not just RYR 800's, I have flown them elsewhere). Seems to me Boeing were a bit stingy when it came to fitting discharge strips ,or some other tech reason beyond my level of comprehension,but this Baby seems to be dissproportionately attractive to Lightning encounters.As far as I know Boeing are aware of the prob, don't know if they are trying to find a fix, or whether we are going to have to put up with it ?¿ Yikes.

[Jambo Buana]

I remember when Ryanair had 9 or 11 strikes into STN all on the same day about 3 years ago. I was hit by an innocuous looking cumulus cloud that seemed to spit at everyone going by.

Wonder how the 787 and all composite a/c will react to a such a bang?

[The Invisible Cat]

Wonder how the 787 and all composite a/c will react to a such a bang?A bit like this (http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~cline/ASK%20lightning%20strike/ASK%20accident%20report.htm) :uhoh: :uhoh:
unless special care is taken of course.

[an3_bolt]

http://www.lancair.net/archives/lightning5.jpg
Bit of structural bog and it will be all OK.
http://www.lancair.net/archives/lightning1.jpg
But there is more....
http://www.lancair.net/archives/Strike4.jpg
First 2 pictures were a strike on the ground.
Last picture I believe was a strike in flight.

Kind of get your attention..... a shocking experience!!

[Kahalaan]

http://www.quartzcity.net/blog/archives/2003/04/13/ana_jet_lightning_strike.html

[Kahalaan]

Investigation post the ANA 747 strike seems to figure on the a/c actually being a 'catalyst' for the strike in an area of 'high energy' wx. Any budding Physicists/Electro genuises able to enlighten us??:8

[Slasher]

Loose R, you flew a bloodey Viscount into wx like that and actualy survived? Mate you deserve a medal for bravery - and I thought Whitney drivers had guts!

Your right about these kids having never been properley thrashed in a monster cell....never known a flameout or lightning strike but with the ones we get here in Nam they learn very damn quickly!

I found thunderstorms liked biting the 737-300/400 in the @rse a lot, usualy just below the captains sliding window.

[149pax]

Unfortunately this is far from rare. Myself, numerous colleagues,and the engineers who attend to the subsequent scrapes and holes, feel that the 800 seems to be particularly subsceptible to Lightning strikes.

Interesting... And do you think that's only the 800 and not the rest of the NG's? What about the 700?

Also, look at this Icelandair B757 that got struck by lightning to it's nose last week shortly after take-off from Keflavik going to New York... It returned safely to KEF.

http://flugnet.com/news/data/upimages/tf_fin_iceair_cone_damage_vf.jpg

Ouch! No surprise that the Wx Radar is U/S...

[149pax]

Another better picture of the same ICE757: (click for a bigger pic)

http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5204/00000299xv.th.jpg (http://img107.imageshack.us/img107/5204/00000299xv.jpg)

[Luc Lion]

Any budding Physicists/Electro genuises able to enlighten us??:8
Kahalaan,
The Invisible Cat has posted a link that explains all this quite in details.
Here is the link again Schleicher ASK 21 two seat glider accident report (http://www.pas.rochester.edu/~cline/ASK%20lightning%20strike/ASK%20accident%20report.htm)

Regards
Luc