How Airplanes Are Immune to Lightning
Lightning scenes are often overdramatized in movies: the plane is shaking with severe turbulence, passengers are screaming and holding on to each other, and bright flashes blast through the window. Any passenger, when flying through a thunderous storm, would be scared to death. Of course, like many media portrayals, a plane is perfectly safe when hit by lightning. To understand why, we need to first take a look at what lightning is.
What Is Lightning?
During a storm, tiny ice particles are formed at high altitudes. The collisions of these particles cause a separation of electric charges. Lighter, positively charged particles move higher up the storm clouds, while heavier, negatively charged particles move down the storm clouds. This forms an electric field. When the electric field is too strong, air molecules begin to break down, resulting in a conductive path from the storm clouds to the ground. During a lightning strike, a giant spark of electricity is sent down from the storm clouds, neutralizing the electrical charge difference.
Effect on An Airplane
When an airplane is in flight, it’s not grounded, meaning that the lightning (when striking the plane) won’t discharge its full potential to the ground, meaning that a lightning strike on an airplane is naturally rare.
If lightning does strike an airplane, it can be better described as an airplane “catching” the lightning, as the fuselage is made of conductive materials. This essentially makes a plane similar to a Faraday cage, which neutralizes the effect of the exterior electrical charges. This conductive skin allows the charged particles to travel along the fuselage of the aircraft and exit back into the air.
Damages
Even though planes are mostly immune to lightning, intense lightning strikes may cause denting, burnt patches, or damage to exterior aircraft equipment like the pitot tube. These damages could impact the aircraft’s instruments, hence pilots tend to avoid storms as much as possible.
