Two weeks ago I was on a flight into London. While we were coming down through some clouds I was looking out of the window for a clearing when I saw an almost blinding purple flash which was followed by a loud crack. I looked forward with pure panic in my eyes at the airhost who was smiling, he calmly informed me that we had just been struck by lighting. Apparently, it's not uncommon and planes are designed to withstand it. I learnt something new that day.
My gf and I flew between two tiny airports in Costa Rica a couple of years back, a Sansa operated 13 seat Cessna. As we went inland and over forests and volcano we became enveloped by dark clouds, battered by rain. No lightning, but we were jolted up, down, left and right repeatedly. Meanwhile the two crew thought nothing of it, in fact one of them appeared to just be merrily using Snapchat throughout. I took this as a sign that we were in no real danger – if they were having to work hard to control the plane I'd be much more worried! My gf, who was absolutely terrified of the whole thing, didn't quite agree with me...
Later that day, our new accommodation had a printed FAQ in the room including "which of Sansa or NatureAir is the safest for flying domestically?". The answer was "Sansa have the braver pilots".
>My gf and I flew between two tiny airports in Costa Rica a couple of years back, a Sansa operated 13 seat Cessna. As we went inland and over forests and volcano we became enveloped by dark clouds, battered by rain. No lightning, but we were jolted up, down, left and right repeatedly. Meanwhile the two crew thought nothing of it, in fact one of them appeared to just be merrily using Snapchat throughout.
Flying back to IND from SFO mid last year we were in some really rough weather (hands down the worst turbulence I've ever experienced) for 20-25 minutes. It was bad enough reading was a futile attempt so I stowed my kindle in my bag and tried to get a nap, I'm sitting there 3/4 asleep with my chin on my chest and the lady across the aisle asks the lady next to me "oh my god, is he asleep or praying" at which point I looked up and said "I was trying to read but we're bouncing around too much so I thought I'd get a nap".
At that elevation, if the cabin was compromised we'd have all been unconscious in seconds and if we were just damaged enough to crash, I figured I'd worry about being scared as we started to fall out of the sky as worst case we'd have 1-2 minutes before we hit the ground.
The only time I get scared in a plane is take off, once the plane is doing about 3/4 of the speed it needs to, until maybe 5 seconds after the wheels leave the ground I'm absolutely terrified. I don't mind the steep climb, I don't mind the landing, but taking off scares me like nothing else climaxing when you feel the wheels leave the tarmac, my blood goes cold (and I'll even breakout in a cold sweat sometimes) every single time.
That fear has always been there too. The first time I ever flew was in a small 4-seat with my 5th grade teacher. He took all of us in his class up that Saturday that were in scouts and any of our dads that wanted to go. I was absolutely terrified once he started accelerating and losing it, within seconds of wheels off the ground I was like "Look over there! Look at that, wow look at the ground, oh man everything is getting so small, wow! Can you tilt the plane so we can see better?"
I must have been a rocket-sled dummy in a past life or something.
Every time I go through a bad turbulence, I picture myself as the narrator in Fight Club on one of his business trips. I look at whoever I'm with and say "Life insurance pays off triple if you die on a business trip".
Me and my gf were taking a cable car up this mountain from a Swiss ski resort during off-season to go hiking. The weather was pretty bad too, it was the end of the day, so we were the only people taking the cable cars. We rushed over there, because it was something like 16:25 and it was closing at 16:30. The whole ride is about 15 minutes. You might see where this is going. Exactly at 16:30, we're about 3/4 way up by then, all the cable cars stop, and start swinging. They don't normally swing while they're being pulled, if they stop mid-way, then they start to swing. Apparently, this isn't such a rare occurance, but we're not skiiers and this was very unsettling. You just see a long fall onto steep rocks below you and hear the wind howling, all the while the thing (that is hardly bigger than a changing booth) is swinging like a gigantic swinging set. It then started moving again after about 60 seconds, only to stop again after maybe 30 seconds, and then it started and stopped 2-3 more times. It was nerve wracking. I look back to it with a smile, but when the cable car finally arrived at the top we practically flew out of it.
Perhaps stopping to prevent the car banging sideways at the walls when entering at the top. This could be an automatic safety feature. You wrote that the weather was bad, was it windy?
I had the same thing happen a few years ago - a flash and a fast, loud bang! I must have flown hundreds of times, but it's only happened once in all that time.
As you said though, the crew were completely unphased, even if there were a lot of panicked looks by a lot of passengers, and a few rather panicked shouts from others!
Always look at the flight attendants, if they're calm, you can be too. I was once on a flight into London on bonfire night, as we banked heavily in our approach we got an amazing view of fireworks going off all over the city. However, we then hit an air pocket, possibly from a plane in front of us, and suddenly dropped a considerable distance. I looked up at the attendants immediately and the one nearest me was barely suppressing a scream and gripping a couple of seat backs for dear life.
Ah, that reminds me of a super fun landing in Frankfurt 25 or so years ago.
It was gusty. Really gusty. Belting it down with rain, cross, tail, headwinds, you name it. I’m surprised to this day that they didn’t divert, but can only guess they were on bingo fuel, as we’d been battling a headwind from London.
I’m flying unaccompanied minor, so there’s an attendant in a jump seat sat directly across from me. I’ve flown a lot by this point, and this is by far the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced, and even since - and we were on final approach.
I’m looking out of the window, keeping one eye on her, and I kid you not, she gets out her rosary beads and starts praying.
As it happened, her response was apt. As we flared, a cross-tailwind caught us hard and we slammed into the runway at an alarming angle - the wingtip grazes the turf, the plane starts to wheel, skids, they’re thrusting like crazy to get us out of a severe crab, the attendant has her eyes shut and her face locked in a mask of terror, passengers are screaming, and somehow, somehow, they get it under control, before getting onto a taxiway and calmly informing us that the flight will end here, because “that landing was a little difficult and the aircraft took some damage”.
As we deplaned, I look back - the starboard wingtip is crumpled metal, and the tires on the starboard aft gear are just gone.
Years later I trained as a pilot, and came to deeply respect the abilities of the Lufthansa flight crew to rescue that, as I later came to realise, near disaster.
I work with planes and it's not at all uncommon to find lightning damage. In fact, there are generic repairs for particular locations prone to lightning strikes.
I had this same experience a few years ago, accompanied by the worst turbulence I've ever experienced in my life. My friend (who is a charter boat captain and qualified ocean sailing instructor) slept through the whole thing!
The sound followed the flash? How much of a gap was there between them? I would have thought they'd be basically simultaneous if you're inside the lightning bolt.
Remember, the sound isn’t really coming from the tip of the bolt. The majority of it is coming from the super-heated air around the bolt along the whole path.
Yes, so the sound should last a while as bits of it from far up the bolt reach you, but I don't understand why the start of the sound would be delayed.
The start of the sound is basically instantaneous.
Source: Have been quite close (tens of meters) to a lightning strike and there was no perceptible lag between lightning and thunder. We were close enough that handheld electronics glitched when it happened.
