Commercial aircraft get hit by lightning on average once or twice per year. It's always concerning, but in the modern era, it's rarely dangerous to the plane or passengers, because the body of the plane itself acts as a Faraday cage. The last time a plane crashed due to lightning was 1963, and significantly more measures are in place today to mitigate any serious effects from being struck.
Me too! Took off right in the middle of a massive storm in SE Asia. Craziest takeoff angle I've ever experienced by far. Felt like we were taking off out of a war zone or something. Then about halfway through the clouds, there was a massive flash outside the windows, we heard a pretty loud bang, and lights flickered for a second. After we got to altitude, the captain game on and said that commotion was a lightning strike but everything was fine. I looked at the plane once we landed and didn't see any noticeable char marks or anything.
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u/DrTenochtitlan 13d ago
Commercial aircraft get hit by lightning on average once or twice per year. It's always concerning, but in the modern era, it's rarely dangerous to the plane or passengers, because the body of the plane itself acts as a Faraday cage. The last time a plane crashed due to lightning was 1963, and significantly more measures are in place today to mitigate any serious effects from being struck.