Watch closely at the tail of the plane for the lightning strike.
Then replay it and watch the front landing gear.
You’ll need to watch it a few times; it’s only about 11 seconds.
Three key things/areas to watch – first, watch the tail of the aircraft as the bolt hits the vertical stab. Then, look just to your left of the nose gear. That brown square on the ground is a metal plate embedded in the concrete with a small manhole cover. The strike exits onto the metal plate and sends the manhole cover flying through the air toward the tug on the far left.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilK6n64ypes
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At many large airports the fuel is delivered by pipeline direct to each parking gate (LHR fuel comes from Fawley) If the strike had happened at one of these there might have been a more dramatic result!
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looks like an earth lead to me although i am on my phone. Aircraft after taxi as soon as possible are earthed, they'll still need to do alot of checks but no doubt it'll be fine.
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The cover that flew off could have some to do with the ground power connection that would be earthed which is normally near the nose on airliners.
Another point aircraft are always earthed during refuelling to dissipate any static charges.
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Thanks Zero.
Some quality piloting,pin point accurate ejecting, and poor souls lost.
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Returning briefly to the strike in the OP, I had been convinced some years ago in the early days of slow-mo vtr that strikes actually go up, rather than down. Not that it makes any odds, really.
And, from personal experience out in the open (perhaps in a quieter environment than an airport) you can hear a lot of frying/buzzing prior to the flash/bang... and the second time you hear it you get away as quickly and safely as possible.
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Looking at the video for the first time, the lightning does exactly what I thought it would - and the aircraft is designed to protect against. The strike basically travels through/over the fuselage and because the plane is on the ground it goes to earth via the landing gear.
Now it might have been different outcome if they were refuelling at the time. But they don't refuel during periods when lightning likely to occur.
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There is no hard and fast rule, can be up from ground to cloud, cloud to ground, all depends on where the positive differential is.
There is believed to be an ionized path opened first that acts at the lightening conduit.
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Lightning strike. - Meldrew
