8/11/2005: Lightning strikes airliner (with animation link)
 

http://cellar.org/2005/lightningstrike3.gif

Some time ago xoB sent along a set of animated GIFs of lightning striking a All Nippon Airlines jet. I kept them around as I often do with submissions, until I could take the time to figure out how to present it. The animated GIF images of this are the real excitement, which are too large (about 400K each) to link directly for those people still on modems. Plus, our connection is a little slow today.

So I'll just link them in and you can see them in a new window, if you have a good connection. The first time the animation runs it may be slow; it loops, so the second time the animation runs it will be at the correct speed.

If you are an anxious flyer you may not want to click through. It's just one more thing you'd have to worry about:

Lightning strikes jet, actual speed

Lightning strikes jet, slow motion

That's gonna leave a mark.

A.) I wonder what that did to the jet
B.) How many mop buckets it took to clean up 100+ people pissing themselves

Who is the aviator in the Cellar? What happens when you get a massive lightening strike on an aircraft this size?

You momentarily pass into another dimension slightly to the left of your expected space-time continuum.

You in that moment give birth to your own grandfather.

But only if you're male.

That would be plthijinx

A - Nothing, it happens all the time.
B - They probably didn't even notice it.
Notice the lightning didn't go through the plane, it traveled from the front to the back then jumped to the ground. :)

The pissing actually starts when they look out their window after the strike and see a really fake looking "monster" crawling around on the wing.

and yes plthijinx..... I wonder....has this ever happenened to you? At what altitude? I've been researching some since lastcall and I nearly got struck a few weeks back. :question:

Now that could weald a cell phone to the side of your head - 'well, I did tell you to turn it off, Mr Yashimoto....!'

No ground= no foul

Although nothing would happen, they would notice. I can imagine the thunder would be rather loud (and somewhat frightening), considering how close they are to the lightning.

long time reader first time poster
 

ahhahaha first off have you ever been near a thunder storm, and second did you see the gifs??

No trust me even if the the pax didn't see the strike they sure as hell heard and probably felt it(imagine the turbulence caused by something that can be heard several miles away???

also as someone who has seen first hand what lighting strikes can do to a plane, ill tell you right now that it left holes somewhere not to mention burnt a bunch of the little rods that are place on the end of the control surfaces for just such occasions clean off.

worst case scenario plane went down. More likely it caused the electrical systems problems and popped a couple of breakers, which the pilots can quickly correct. Seeing how it stuck it might of damaged the radar.

Hiya fredorpaul, welcome to the posting side of the cellar. You know the drill. The poster who stands up will be hammered down. Or struck by lightning. Post away!

Well I think I heard that it had some effect - something about a passenger finding his dentures acquired a light blue tincture and that he temporarily lost hearing in both his ears following the strike. So maybe I mistook that for being a cell phone wealded to the side of his face instead of the blue tooth ear peace it really was (sorry, old fogey humour, luckily only occurs infrequently). :eyebrow:

Wouldn't be surprised if a few of the passengers wanted to Nippoff after that.