Why can not lightning harm a flying airplane?

Perhaps you already know that lightning striking a car does not bring passengers harm. And what about the plane?

Unusual photo

Halldor Gudmundsson noticed a huge lightning striking the ground near his office, located near the international airport in Iceland. He immediately turned on the camera of his mobile phone and began to shoot in the hope of catching a new flash of light cutting the sky. Suddenly he saw a plane taking off at the airport. He barely broke away from the ground and immediately struck by lightning! This unusual sight looked interesting, but at the same time frightening. Gudmundsson received a unique photo, and the plane as if nothing had happened to take off and went to destination.

A common case

The plane, which the Icelander observed, safely flew to its destination, without difficulty getting from Iceland to Paris. The discharge of electricity did him no harm. In fact, the fact that lightning can strike a plane is an entirely normal case that no one should be afraid of. He can easily cope with the blow, despite the fact that his power can be compared with a quarter of a ton of TNT. The cabin of the aircraft cabin is made in a special way, it conducts electricity, but does not allow it to the crew, passengers and electronic equipment. Due to the layer of metal mesh that is located inside the skin throughout the aircraft, electricity generated by the lightning strike passes evenly and does not harm anyone.

Additional measures

Among other things, the equipment and fuel tank are carefully concealed from any external influence of electricity. All this is checked before take-off. During the test, lightning strokes are simulated and all internal equipment is tested with the skin. If everything works properly, the lightning enters the plane in the bow and comes out from the tail and partly from the wings. At the same time, everything on board is completely safe. However, people on board can notice the impact. For example, sometimes you hear a loud sound. In earlier times, the aircraft were not so well protected, there was no metal mesh inside the shell. As a result, the equipment could easily shut down, but then it was supplemented with mechanical devices. All this made it possible to safely land the landing, even in cases where the on-board computer did not work. Thus, the lightning strike was relatively harmless in former times and is completely safe now.