NZFF

Posted: **Wed Jun 25, 2008 8:51 pm**

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

NZ Herald Link

Interesting that this made the papers... We missed our connection so as Qantas were organising putting us up in a hotel, the conversation was around an Argentine flight that was hit by lightning on approach to AKL earlier in the evening. Ground staff were saying that it actually punctured the plane around the cockpit area.

Not sure how true is, but there was an Aerolineas Argentinas plane nosed in to the Air NZ maintenance hanger when we flew out this morning. There was nothing in the paper though.

Anyone able to confirm this?

Posted: **Thu Jun 26, 2008 2:44 am**

both Argentinas and Lan Chile over the beachlands area following one behind the other for the 23L ILS got hits from the same cell one after the other.

damage to Lan Chile

numerous other near misses. Aircraft are still avoiding weather like crazy all over the place, even as I sit here now at work there is lightning going off all over the place. The place was brought to a standstill yesterday while all refuelling operations stopped at the height of the storms.

Posted: **Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:22 am**

Wow nice.

Lightning strikes can be bad - but this one seems to not have done too much really bad damage.
Thanks for posting that picture towerguy.
The Air NZ flight didn't seem to be affected, but it probably freaked a couple of the passengers out - strange balls of light and such.

Posted: **Thu Jun 26, 2008 7:24 am**

OOH

Not the best way to end a long flight.
How long will that take to fix? Do they need to get a part in?

Posted: **Thu Jun 26, 2008 4:59 pm**

Daniel wrote:
QUOTE (Daniel @ Jun 26 2008, 07:24 AM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
How long will that take to fix?

I saw LAN departing yesterday at 10:55(just before rain starts) and also Aerolineas A340 pushed from ANZ eng.services at 14:45.

Posted: **Mon Jul 07, 2008 1:08 pm**

An MP and some other pax had their Air NZ plane hit by lightning out of AKL on NZ2.
It's not worth making a new thread over a politician and a bit of lightning.

Here's the Stuff link: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4609546a11.html

Posted: **Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:22 pm**

If its dark sometimes you get early warning signs that lightning is about to hit an aircraft, the nose glows and builds up static electricity(St Elmos Fire). Generally lightning strikes don't cause too much damage to aircraft although the weather and ice is more of a hazard which is something you would want to avoid.

Posted: **Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:17 pm**

QUOTE

Generally lightning strikes don't cause too much damage to aircraft[/quote]

That would depend on where you got hit. In Metros and 1900's it has a nasty habit of knocking generators off line and they can be very difficult to reset after receiving a belt of electricity. A hit on a prop can do serious bearing damage through out the engine and has resulted in engine failures, I know of a rolls royce dart and a PT6 that were destroyed following a strike on the prop.
The ice is easily avoided, with the lightning you don't even have to be IMC to get a hit.

NZFF

Lightning strike shakes fliers