A pilot with a leading commercial airline writes about aircraft being hit by lightning and the problems of turbulence
BEING STRUCK by lightning is a relatively common occurrence, but it would be a surprise to me if the aircraft encountered difficulties due to a strike.
Nonetheless, it can be a very big bang or crack, like a loud horsewhip. It can sound like something has actually hit the plane. Sometimes you can see where it has hit because you see the bolt coming in.
I have been in aircraft where they have had 2mm holes burnt in the skin but aircraft cannot conduct electricity, so it will go around the fuselage and off the static wicks [plastic covered wires on the edges of wings and the tail].
The first thought if you are hit by turbulence is to make the aircraft safe. You put the seat belt signs on and advise the cabin crew, telling them whether they need to put away equipment or trolleys so that nothing flies around the plane.
Then it’s a case of making sure you are strapped in and finding the smoothest air in the area. I have flown 200 miles off track in order to avoid the worst of a turbulent area and make the passengers comfortable.
It’s not a safety issue regarding the plane, it’s a safety issue to do with the passengers. When you go into turbulence it’s a weird feeling. Humans are not evolved to deal with a negative G-force.
It can induce a feeling of floating and that’s very uncomfortable for passengers, and pilots as well.
You put the emotions to one side, but that’s not to say that you don’t feel relief at the end of it.
In the worst cases it can be a negative G-force of more than one G, but aircraft are designed to take up to 2.5Gs and in reality they can stand even more than that.
From the passengers' and crew's point of view, they will feel it much more than the plane. The plane can move 20 or 30 feet up and down, which is quite dramatic for passengers but is of no consequence in aeronautical terms. – ( Guardianservice)