When lightning strikes a plane in the skies, it is easy to imagine danger for the safety of an aircraft, and frequent travellers may wonder how often planes get struck by lightning. Yet, in modern aviation, an airplane lightning strike is a routine event that aircraft are designed to withstand.
What Happens When Lightning Strikes a Plane and How Often Planes Get Struck by Lightning
When lightning strikes an airplane, the current usually enters through one point, often the nose or wingtip, and exits at another, such as the tail. The aircraft’s outer layer which can be metal or composite skin, acts as a Faraday cage, conducting the charge safely around the outside instead of through the cabin.
A typical airplane lightning strike carries up to 200,000 amperes – the basic unit of electric current, which measures how much electric charge flows through a conductor each second – and reaches temperatures above 27,000 degrees Celsius. However, it only lasts a few microseconds. When lightning strikes a plane, the results are often just a burn or scorch mark on the aircraft fuselage, where the bolt entered or exited, which is usually inspected and repaired by maintenance crews on the ground.
According to the Flight Safety Foundation, a commercial aircraft is struck by lightning once or twice per year, roughly on strike per 1,000 flight hours. Most incidents occur between 5,000 and 15,000 feet during climb and descent, where the thunderclouds are common and most active.
Planes Can Trigger Their Own Lightning
Contrary to popular beliefs, airplanes often trigger lightning rather than simply being hit by it. As a jet flies through charged air, it can disturb the surrounding electric field, sparking a discharge between the aircraft and the cloud.
Research by Skybrary found that 40% of airplane lightning incidents happen without a visible storm, as atmospheric charge alone can cause a strike even in visibly clear air. The 1969 launch of Apollo 12 is a well-known example; the rocket was struck by lightning twice, even though no other lightning activity had been recorded in the area for several hours.
Why Airplanes Are Safe During Lightning
The fact that lightning rarely causes harm is not luck but aviation safety engineering.
The last major accident linked to a lightning strike on an airplane occurred on December 8, 1963, when Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, was struck while holding near Elkton, Maryland. The lightning ignited fuel vapours in a wing tank, causing an explosion that tore off part of the left wing and killed all 81 people on board.
The Civil Aeronautics Board investigation led to new safety regulations and research into how lightning interacts with aircraft structures. The findings spurred major flight safety improvements, including better fuel tank bonding, redesigned vent outlets, and thicker aluminium wing skins to prevent electrical penetration.
These changes, along with advances in airplane lightning protection such as conductive materials and shielded wiring, have made modern jets resilient to electrical strikes. Today, certification standards require aircraft to withstand direct lightning discharges without critical damage.
According to the FAA, no commercial jet has been lost to lightning in more than five decades, which is evidence of why airplanes are safe during lightning and how design innovation turned a once deadly threat into a controlled risk.
Read more on the latest airline technology innovation here.
Lightning is Loud, Usually Not Lethal
When lightning strikes a plane, passengers may see a flash or hear a sharp crack when lightning strikes, although that is usually the extent of it for the majority of strikes in commercial aviation under normal conditions. Light may flicker for a brief moment, and instruments can register the effect of it, but aircraft systems are built to withstand such events.
Once on the ground, maintenance staff inspect the aircraft for exterior damage, which is often limited to minor scorch marks near the antennas and wingtips where the lightning enters and exits the aircraft’s skin.
Airplane being hit by lightning is more noise than threat. Aviation innovation has turned what once was a safety risk into a manageable part of modern aircraft design.
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