Aircraft vs. lightning is scary, but planes are safe


While aircraft vs. lightning strikes may produce a light show and bang, it’s highly unlikely they will damage the airplanes or cause injuries.


aircraft vs. lightning

Lightning by Dmitry Kalinin, Copyright © Creative Commons License

Passengers on a May, 2022, flight from Tirana, Albania, to Abu Dhabi were reportedly extremely scared. Some screamed after the aircraft vs. lightning encounter. Their Wizz Air flight, WAZ 7092, was hit by lightning shortly after it departed from Tirana. Soon after the lightning strike, the pilot turned the aircraft back to Tirana. It landed safely in the Albanian capital.

Passengers reported a bright light and bang from the lightning strike, but no one was hurt.

Passengers on the flight reported a large bang after the strike. One passenger said there was a blue-colored light that turned to bright yellow. No fire was reported. The captain calmed the passengers soon after the strike, explained what happened, said the plane was okay and announced that they were returning to Tirana to ensure the safety of all passengers and crew.

No one was hurt.

The last time a commercial plane crashed in the U.S. due to a lightning strike was in 1963.

It’s been a long time since a commercial plane crashed in the U.S. caused by a lightning strike. It was back in 1963. Pan Am flight 214 was flying from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Baltimore, Maryland, then to Philadelphia. The plane landed as scheduled in Baltimore. It left for Philadelphia with 73 passengers and eight crew members. High winds caused it to be placed in a holding pattern above the Philadelphia region. That evening, the plane exploded and crashed near Elkton, Maryland. The Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report reveals that a lightning strike ignited the fuel vapor in the reserve fuel tank in the left wing, causing an explosion. The wing disintegrated, causing the plane to crash. All 81 aboard the plane were killed.

While lightning strikes on commercial aircraft are infrequent, they aren’t unusual. According to the U.S. National Weather Service, “Commercial transport passenger planes are hit by lightning an average of one or two times a year.” Across the globe, at least one commercial aircraft is hit by lightning almost every day. It turns out that aircraft often initiate the lightning strike, according to the Weather Service, because they enhance “the ambient electric fields typical for thunderstorms.”

There are times, seasons and locations where lighting strikes are more prevalent.

There are times during flights that aircraft are more likely to be hit by lightning. Most planes are hit by lightning strikes during take offs and landings, as lightning activity is prevalent between 5,000 and 15,000 feet above the Earth. Therefore, short-haul planes with frequent daily take offs and landings are more likely to be hit by lightning each year than longer haul aircraft. Spring and summer are the most common seasons for lightning strikes. Some geographic locations are more susceptible to lightning. For example, the midwest and southeastern U.S., particularly Florida, have more lightning strikes than other areas of the nation.

If lightning strikes an airplane today, passengers and crew may see a bright flash of light and hear a loud bang or other loud noise, as those on WAZ 7092 reported, but nothing serious should happen to the aircraft.

Scientists and engineers have learned how to prevent airplane crashes due to lightning strikes on airplanes.

Scientists and engineers have learned a great deal about how lightning can affect airplanes and how to protect the planes to keep their passengers and crews safe. Airplanes in the twenty-first century are designed to withstand thousands more amperes of electricity than lightning bolts can deliver. They’re designed to conduct the lightning’s current off the plane with little more than a quick flicker of some lights.

Engineers have designed many features into today’s commercial planes to protect them from inevitable lightning strikes. Engineers have designed fully encased fuel tanks and fuel lines to prevent a lightning strike from triggering a fire or explosion there. In addition, access doors, fuel filler caps, vents, structural joints, and even fasteners have been designed to prevent sparks from lightning which could ignite the fuel/vapor.

The jet fuel used today produces less explosive vapor than in the past, improving safety in case of a lightning strike. At this time, most passenger jets’ outer skin is primarily made of aluminum, but that’s changing. The Boeing 787 and the Airbus A350 use composite materials. An aircraft’s aluminum skin conducts electricity very well, but planes made with composite materials don’t. As a result, engineers have embedded conductive fibers or screens into composite material aircraft skins to conduct lightning’s current.

Aircraft designers make sure that no gaps exist in planes’ skin to ensure the lightning’s current stays on the aircraft’s exterior. Due primarily to their shapes, some exterior areas of aircraft, where lightning commonly strikes, such as the nose, wing-tips and tail, tend to concentrate electrical fields and therefore are more prone to be damaged by lightning strikes. Therefore, engineers use lightning diverters on the nose, conductive metals for bonding lights to the wings, etc., to prevent damage.

Aircraft vs. lightning — today’s flight instruments are protected against strikes.

Irritated by hotel resort fees?Today’s commercial aircraft use computer-based digital instrumentation and controls. Even planes’ steering wheels, as seen in the old movies, are gone. Pilots now use joysticks, like those for gaming, to steer the plane. It’s called “fly by wire.” As a result, modern jetliners have miles of wires connecting onboard computers with controls and actuators which run the plane as per the pilot’s commands. Since lightning traveling on the outer skin of aircraft has the potential to induce electrical transients, surges into wires beneath the skin, engineers install shielding, grounding, and surge suppression devices to protect the computers, wires, etc., in case of a lighting strike. That prevents the pilot from losing control of the aircraft.

Airlines must carefully maintain the systems which protect their planes, passengers, and crews. It takes great design and maintenance to protect planes from lightning to ensure air travelers get to their destinations safely.

After a lightning strike, planes are thoroughly inspected before they are again flown.

After a lightning strike, planes are thoroughly inspected before they’re permitted to fly again. During the inspection, trained aircraft maintenance personnel move from station to station, stringer to stringer from the nose to the tail, from wing to wing tip to locate any damage from the lightning strike, no matter how small. These days, inspection crews are often using drones, which have improved both the accuracy and speed of the inspections. Experts report that drone use in lightning inspections has reduced the inspection time by about 75 percent. The drones permit operators to visually inspect the plane and their high resolution images can enable detailed damage assessment.

While aircraft damage can occur from lightning strikes from time to time, sometimes with a spectacular light show and a bang, aircraft design and maintenance have minimized potential strike damage, permitting commercial airliners in the twenty-first century to withstand direct lightning strikes and safely crisscross the globe daily.

Join Us for Cybersecurity Benefits(Image: Lightning by Dmitry Kalinin, Copyright © Creative Commons License)


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