Can't believe they survived
 

Excellent example of exemplary aviation reporting today.
Plane passes within 2m-20km (impossible to tell) of a lightning strike.

"That was scary" says the storm chaser, who are generally well known to be aviation experts as well. (Sorry Daniel, but nice photo/vid btw)
It's perhaps surprising that the subtitle toward the end says "And it arrived safe and sound" as opposed to "Unbelievably, it didn't explode mid-air".

I'm embarrassed that I clicked on the link.

http://media.brisbanetimes.com.au/ne...l-6945279.html

So you mean they can fly in cloud!

How do the Pilots see out the front?

Exactly why they should not remove the life rafts.... :}

Hmm...Fairfax Media.

Explains it all really.:ugh:

...or the parachutes!

Nope, looks like Limited News got in first and said the lightning actually hit the plane!

No Cookies | dailytelegraph.com.au

We don't get a lot of lightning in limeyland, chaps, so when about ten years ago a lightning strike near Dunstable caused a K21 glider to disintegrate, it was thoroughly studied by the Air Accident Investigation Board.
They were able to interview the pilot and passenger as well, because when the blast blew the canopy into smithereens, they didn't have to think twice about opening it and departing the glider....on meeting the ground the captain of the glider sustained a sprained ankle, the pax was unhurt. Nice to be wearing a parachute at a moment like that.

The AAIB took the bits of the glider and discovered that the voltage of the strike was considerably higher than the Faraday cage protection required of airliners...

Yeah, well sometimes they aren't much better.:O :D

Early 90s. Newly minted 747 Captain. I went through a 'phase' when I seemed to attract lightning. Must have had about 8 strikes in two years.
Approaching LHR, little 12,000 ft high thing. In Australia it would be just a nuisance Cu, hardly even Towering Cu. In UK, it's a Cb.Whump.
Leaving Melbourne in drizzly stratiform. Not a Cb within 10 miles. Whump.
Departing Sydney 16R, at night, still over Botany Bay. Whump. Whump Twice within 30 seconds. A certain Labor politician on board. Let's call him Gareth, because that indeed was his name. Must have been meant for him, we thought.
Several others. In cruise.
No damage [except an occasional scorch mark on the skin]. Certainly the -400s electronics never even blinked. Despite the AAIB's conclusion, and with no parachutes, we all survived every one.
Then for more than 20 years until retirement, not ever another one.
That's the noise it makes, "whump". Not like rolling thunder, not a crack like a whip. Just "WHUMP".

Oh for Pete's sake, don't you recognise a Cessna when you see one. :)

Had one in a B744 coming out of old KL going to SIN, that hit the nose cone and did disconnect auto pilot but we were able to reconnect.
Quite strange, we could see the streak of lighting marching to-wards the aircraft and we could do nothing about it.

Was once cruising along in an A model C402 in IMC around 15,000' somewhere well north of Kerema (Gulf Province PNG) and was unaware that there were a few embedded CB's around. None were forecast either but I really had been in the Country long enough to had known better!:=

Only light turbulence, but then there was a brilliant flash just ahead and to the right of the A/C, followed about half a second later by an almighty CRACK that was heard quite clearly, even over the engine sounds.

A rapid 90 degree turn to port ensued, and there was no further events!

Back on the ground at Port Morbid I made a beeline for the Club Dero and had twopela strongdrink! Several, in fact.

Those were the days!!:ok::ok:

"Was once cruising along in an A model C402 in IMC around 15,000'"

Sucking on oxygen of course Pinky??:E

Better than sucking on trees. Those be the days.

Strewth, mate, didn't that hurt at all? :eek:

In PNG in an early model C402?:confused:

As the former Mrs Pinky was wont to say on occasion....

'Let's be real, Boys and Girls!':(

Well, those two Dunstable glider pilots did suffer some effect from the lightning strike. Both were deaf for several hours. And the instructor (captain) in the back seat had all the hair on the back of his neck singed off.
The control wires, braided steel, ran behind his seat.

Long ago, climbing out from Tel Aviv, passing around 5000ft, in a clear blue sky, not a cloud in sight anywhere - and WHUMP! - struck by lightning.....where did that come from?

Gaza? ;).....................

You sure it was lightning????? :eek: