Lightning Strikes
The weather here in San Antonio this week is awful. Today I had to cut short my swim in the outdoor pool as thunder and lightning were directly overhead. Not wanting to be a victim of a lightning strike I sought the sanctuary of the pool-house. Just what options are available to airliners when thunderstorms are present? In March 2023 a Lufthansa flight from Austin to Frankfurt had to divert to Dulles after it was struck by lightning with several passengers requiring medical treatment (Tedder, 2023). The FAA instructs pilots to avoid all thunderstorms and never go closer than 5 miles to any visible storm (FAA, 2008). The reason for this is a thunderstorm is an uncontrolled heat engine that may produce any or all of the most violent weather hazards a pilot can encounter, hail, ice, turbulence to name a few. Airliners can usually fly above thunderstorms. If this is not possible then they will be diverted around the bad weather. Should the thunderstorm be in the vicinity of an airp...