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Plane struck by lightning!

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Copa Airlines aircraft gets pegged by lightning! Watch the rampies scatter in a hurry! (www.youtube.com) More...

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stanpiernick
STAN PIERNICK 2
Impressive, only a couple of more steps and a rampie would have bought it!
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
This actually very very old. October 2009 posted on YouTube?
TWA55
TWA55 1
Guess they were lucky no one was applying GPU cable...
andreadebiase
hi
can someone explain to me why would electricity, that normally chooses the shorter/easier path, hit an airplane connected to the ground through rubber???
i guess there was nothing better to hit?
elfynh
Elfyn Hanks 2
The lightening has traveled all the way down from the sky to the plane. A (relatively) small tire is not going to stop it.

theschoolofchuck
Why does the lightning "pick" a path through a large rubber tire(an insulator) over continuing through the same medium that brought it to the vertical stabilizer in the first place, right? Especially when a large rubber insulator exists between the aircraft and ground. An excellent question. After the lightning "hits" the plane it travels through the conductive surface skin of the aircraft, when it reached the nose gear it likely had a "choice" of going through the tire or arcing through the air. Because the rubber has more resistance than the moist air surrounding it, it most likely continued to ground via the air. I can't go into this any further without getting into physics, but let me know if this explanation helped at all.
sandylns
Brian Lager 1
Good answer.
I would imagine that the discharge came either through the axle or the bonding strap located adjacent to the gear. If you look at the video towards the end, it appears as if the bonding strap was blown from the grounding stud on the ramp.
ToddBaldwin3
ToddBaldwin3 1
The aircraft should be grounded, unless they have disconnected prior to push back. Besides, who knows what mad the lightening go in that direction.
ToddBaldwin3
ToddBaldwin3 1
I should type slower. That should read ...made...
preacher1
preacher1 5
I thought I saw a documentary a few years ago on Nat Geo that lightning originated on the ground and went skyward
elfynh
Elfyn Hanks 3
You get an initial feeler that travels up to towards the sky and when it connects a path is created and the lightening discharges to the ground.
preacher1
preacher1 1
devsfan
ken young 1
WOW!!!
To explain ...Lightening basically does what it wants to. We have safety recommendations for lightening, but they are not fool proof.
sparkie624
sparkie624 1
Planes get struck by lightning all the time.... Happens more often in the air when you can't see it, but the damage is still there.
williampeers
william peers 1
AIRCRAFT CAN WITHSTAND IT.
sheka
mark tufts 1
amazing is right and nobody got hurt just soiled themselves
theschoolofchuck
That was pretty amazing. I hope nobody got hurt.
jkabradley
jkabradley -1
A not-so-little piece of something came flying from the front wheel area...wonder what that was? Flies towards the left side of the frame immediately after the strike. Scary stuff.
jkabradley
jkabradley 1
Never mind, it's a ground plate (I need to learn to read better ;)

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