Lightning hits one part of the airplane, follows the outer surface of the frame and jumps back into the air, possibly leaving small burn marks where it enters and leaves.If you’re on a Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” or another airplane with a skin made mostly of composite materials, conducting material embedded in the composite does the same job as the aluminum skin of older aircraft.Today’s pilots strive to avoid thunderstorms by a wide margin mainly because of the dangers of extreme turbulence and hailstones that could possibly break the windshield and otherwise damage the airplane.Nevertheless, airplanes can trigger lightning strikes — maybe a thunderstorm’s first strike — event when they are outside cumulus clouds. You’re also safe in a metal vehicle with the windows rolled up, as long as you don’t touch any metal, such as the shift lever. "a bolt from the blue", literal meaning thereof). An array of measures, some detailed here, have improved safety. However, for the same reason, a lightning strike doesn't often cause any damage to a metal plane. Air & Space Magazine Flying in such high altitudes above the ground, planes are a natural target for lightning bolts. But the use of composite materials in modern airliners like the Boeing 787, with a fuselage made predominantly of carbon fiber, has required additional design features, such as putting some metal back into the fuselage for lightning protection. However, narrow-bodied aircraft equipped with FADEC controlled, aft fuselage mounted engines have been found to be vulnerable to double engine flame-out in the event of a lightning strike. Yet, they fly safely due the presence of an aircraft lightning diverter. Asked by: Sridhar Narayanan Answer Since the outer skin of most airplanes is primarily aluminum, which is a very good conductor of electricity; the secret to safe lightning hits is to allow the current to flow through the skin from the point of impact to some other point without interruption or diversion to the interior of the aircraft. | Boeing 787 lightning protection is critical as it suffers more impact than other aircraft when in the event of a lightning strike. Have a question about our comment policies? I'd expect that a wooden plane could be downed by a lightning strike, and lightning strikes are not always closely associated with cumulonimbus clouds. Have you ever wondered why you’re safe in an airplane that flies through a thunderstorm with lightning?At first glance you might think that this flies in the face of the basic safety rule: when thunder roars go indoors.In other words, when you’re on the ground, you should take shelter in a building with plumbing and electrical wiring. Thanks to FAA regulations, planes are protected as much as possible from lightning.
The plane was being pushed back from a gate at Orlando International Airport.Furthermore, letting passengers leave or board an airplane on outside metal stairs, rather than on an enclosed jet way, is also dangerous when you can see lightning or hear thunder.Such potential accidents have prompted airlines to stop many activities around planes on the ground during lightning storms, including refueling, loading luggage, and boarding passengers when there is no enclosed jet way.The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.The most important news stories of the day, curated by Post editors and delivered every morning.Share your feedback by emailing the author. Look up "positive lightning" (a.k.a. In fact, 1963 was the last year a strike caused an airliner to crash in the United States. As this field expands it induces an electrical current in nearby electrical conductors, such as an airplane’s wires. Cloud-to-ground flashes have hit airplanes as they take off or land, with the lightning passing through the airplane and continuing on to hit the ground.The Federal Aviation Administration estimates that on average, lightning hits each airliner in U.S. service once a year.Yet, the last U.S. airliner crash that lighting caused occurred on December 8, 1963 when lightning struck a Pan American Boeing 707 over Elkton, Md. In practice, aircraft are frequently hit by lightning with little or no physical damage. Description. Every airliner is struck by lightning in flight at least once a year, on average. Lightning Attaches to entry and exit points almost simultaneously, and most commonly strikes the nose, wingtips, engine cowlings, and tip of the vertical tail. In the case of aircraft, it can strike multiple times. For example, in 1989, lightning killed an airline employee who was talking to the crew using a headset connected to the airplane by a wire when lightning hit the airplane. It’s easy to imagine what such on-and-off induced currents could do to simple electrical systems, such as radios, much less to fly-by-wire systems without today’s shielding and surge protection systems.The greatest potential danger to people of lightning hitting an airplane is probably on the ground. But how do diverters work? “Smaller aircraft and the military have been using composites for 30 or 40 years,” says Ed Rupke, vice president and senior engineer at Lightning Technologies, Inc., in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a subcontractor to numerous airplane manufacturers and suppliers. On average,based on the collected event log, every commercial aircraft gets struck once per …