The original poster was surprised that the passengers weren’t barbecued and that the plane didn’t fall out of the sky, but its straight up science!
Remember, as lightning is the movement of electrons from a negatively charged cloud to a positively charged earth, its simply looking for the easiest path down, whether through humid air particles or jetliner. The energy from the lightning passed over the aluminum skin of the airplane and then kept on going right into the ground and I bet that the lights inside didn’t even flicker! This fact is actually a point of concern for the future movement of aircraft to all-composite airframes as they won’t naturally wick the lightning away.
Fun fact: according to this USA Today explainer from 2004, odds are that each airliner in the United States will be hit by lightning about once a year and as of the writing, no crashes had been caused by lightning in over 40 years!
Science Rules! 747 Struck By Lightning
To quote the Science Guy: “Science Rules!”
The original poster was surprised that the passengers weren’t barbecued and that the plane didn’t fall out of the sky, but its straight up science!
Remember, as lightning is the movement of electrons from a negatively charged cloud to a positively charged earth, its simply looking for the easiest path down, whether through humid air particles or jetliner. The energy from the lightning passed over the aluminum skin of the airplane and then kept on going right into the ground and I bet that the lights inside didn’t even flicker! This fact is actually a point of concern for the future movement of aircraft to all-composite airframes as they won’t naturally wick the lightning away.
Fun fact: according to this USA Today explainer from 2004, odds are that each airliner in the United States will be hit by lightning about once a year and as of the writing, no crashes had been caused by lightning in over 40 years!