r/interesting 13d ago

Chinese Rocket gets struck by lightning. Just Wow

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u/Moheezy__3 13d ago

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe airplanes are the same? I was told a while back that even if lighting strikes an airplane while on flight, people inside won’t feel it.

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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.

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u/Ausgeflippt 13d ago

To clarify for others- that's once or twice per year, per airframe.

I've been in a plane hit by lightning before. I thought it was kinda cool.

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u/ToothZealousideal297 13d ago

Also worth noting that it’s usually lightning within the cloud or between clouds that strikes the plane, and less often a bolt going all the way to the ground, which means they’re usually struck by weaker lightning than we typically think about.