Zapped Air NZ 737

[stu]

www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10518226

LIGHTNING STRIKE SHAKES FLIERS

Passengers on an Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to Auckland yesterday afternoon were shaken by a lightning strike during their descent.

Auckland environmental consultant Gary Taylor, one of 120 passengers on the Boeing 737, said he saw "a ball of light" flashing up the sky outside the port side of the aircraft.

That was accompanied by a clap of thunder, leaving passengers gasping and wondering what had happened.

But there was no apparent physical impact, and Mr Taylor was unaware that lightning had struck the aircraft until it landed about 3pm, and the flight captain made an announcement telling passengers what had happened.

"He said there was a lightning strike at about 8000ft during our descent, and it did a little bit of damage to the plane."

Air NZ spokeswoman Tracey Palmer said the lightning had struck the aircraft's radome, which is on the nose and houses its weather radar antenna.

But she said the flight was not endangered by the strike.

"The impact did not cause any airworthiness issues for the aircraft, and the safety of passengers was at no time compromised."

- Mathew Dearnaley

[flyjoe180]

Oh well, a bit of excitement and laundry for the passengers, and probably also the crew, on that flight. I crewed a Metro to Auckland unpressurised recently after it had been hit by lightning. A small entry hole next to the captain's wall, a gash a little further forward of that, and a main exit point out the back of the tail cone. The tail cone had been completely burned.

[Bruce]

The effects of lightning strikes on aircraft can vary greatly. At CityJet (TranzGlobal at the time) there was a lightning strike on Bandeirante Freighter ZK-KML not long before I started. I was shown photos of the damage to one flap, where exiting arcing had left a line of perforations down the trailing edge (Flap had to be written off). In addition the radios got zapped and electrical bonding cables all over the aircraft burnt out. a possible factor was the poor condition of the static discharge wicks - subsequently we were very picky about keeping these in good order!

[flyjoe180]

Well, given the damage to that Metro and the scars on Dave's tree, I reckon Mother Nature wins.