Lightning strikes jet plane

Kolkata: The Kolkata-Port Blair Jet Airways flight with 171 passengers was struck by lightning over the Bay of Bengal on Monday. While negotiating turbulent weather, the veteran captain did not even realise that there had been a strike till the scar was spotted on arrival in Port Blair.
"Lightning struck the plane’s rear end. Captain Suman Chowdhury spotted the scar while checking the aircraft after landing at Port Blair. Since it did not affect the aircraft avionics, we assume it was a low-intensity strike," a Jet official said. With the plane passing through heavy cloud cover towards the fag end of the two-hour flight, the strike is likely to have occurred between 7 am and 7.30 am.
On spotting the lightning scar, the captain contacted Jet officials in Mumbai. Over the next four hours, technicians in Mumbai went through the aircraft manual minutely and asked the captain to cross-check all systems that could have developed a snag due to the strike.
Finding none, it was decided to fly back to Kolkata and then to Mumbai for a thorough check. The return flight took off at 1.15 pm with 173 passengers.
28/08/07 Times of India

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Categories: Jet Airways Aug 2007, Safety Aug 2007