I’m At KSAN, and was about to board a 767-400. Right after boarding time, they announced that the aircraft had experienced a lightning strike. I wonder why it took them that long to announce it. I saw the pilots doing their paperwork as if to get ready. Could they have noticed an avionics issue?

As you guys know, the aircraft requires a full inspection, thus an estimated 90 minute delay, assuming they find no damage.

GENERALLY speaking: After a lightning strike: How often is there enough damage to necessitate a new aircraft?

EDIT: I just talked to the Captain and they did indeed find damage. The egress of the lightning was found on the vertical stabilizer. He said that they’re gonna do the repair here.

I’m pretty much screwed, huh?

When the strike occur, while you were waiting to push or on the inbound flight? A lot of damage may be hidden in the structure and not found until interior furnishings are removed during scheduled work. Exit damage is common enough and depending, it might be a CDL wrote-off or a repair.

Generally speaking, there is rarely enough damage to require an aircraft change. However, an inspection would be needed if the pilots of the inbound sector report a possible lighting strike.

It might have taken that long because the inbound pilots were unaware of the strike (yes this can happen) and damage was spotted during the engineer and/or pilot walkaround

Sounds like the system worked and the walk around caught the damage. That should be a pretty easy fix for a medium sized station where Delta has line maintenance like SAN.

N1120A wrote:

Sounds like the system worked and the walk around caught the damage. That should be a pretty easy fix for a medium sized station where Delta has line maintenance like SAN.

If speedtape doesn't work, use more speedtape.

Starlionblue wrote:

Generally speaking, there is rarely enough damage to require an aircraft change. However, an inspection would be needed if the pilots of the inbound sector report a possible lighting strike.

It might have taken that long because the inbound pilots were unaware of the strike (yes this can happen) and damage was spotted during the engineer and/or pilot walkaround

True about damage, most of the time the pilots don't know the plane got hit till they land and see a static wick missing. and then you get to looking and find scorch marks elsewhere there the lightning entered. The damage is usually similar to a weld mark if its on metal, and on composite usually the static wick, base, and sometimes part of the mounting surface is missing.

rjsampson wrote:

I’m At KSAN, and was about to board a 767-400. Right after boarding time, they announced that the aircraft had experienced a lightning strike. I wonder why it took them that long to announce it. I saw the pilots doing their paperwork as if to get ready. Could they have noticed an avionics issue?

I would wager the mechanics noticed this on their post flight walk around. These strikes often happen well above ground height and equipment needs to be brought in to inspect and document the occurrence.

Often when there is one there is many, I have had over 20 entry points noticed by the mechanics with no noticeable impact on the aircraft or it’s systems.

Looks more likely that Maintenance personnell observed Lightening strike indications on the Exterior during their Walkaround and after confirming same informed the Flight crew.

HAWK21M wrote:

Looks more likely that Maintenance personnell observed Lightening strike indications on the Exterior during their Walkaround and after confirming same informed the Flight crew.

the lightning strike inspection is a complete inch by inch inspection of the airframe which takes 4-6 mechanics 3-4 hours with a cherry picker for the vertical stabilizer because every inch of the upper fuselage haive never een aas to be inspected. then repaired if needed. I've never seen a lightning strike airplane of any type take less than 4 hours and that includes a lear 23.

#7270 ferried down from ORD to MCO to repair lightning damage in a few areas on the crown.

strfyr51 wrote:

HAWK21M wrote:

Looks more likely that Maintenance personnell observed Lightening strike indications on the Exterior during their Walkaround and after confirming same informed the Flight crew.

the lightning strike inspection is a complete inch by inch inspection of the airframe which takes 4-6 mechanics 3-4 hours with a cherry picker for the vertical stabilizer because every inch of the upper fuselage haive never een aas to be inspected. then repaired if needed. I've never seen a lightning strike airplane of any type take less than 4 hours and that includes a lear 23.

I was speaking on the observation NOT rectification.

I have been involved in many lighting strike inspections and repairs over my years in aircraft maintenance. Lightning strikes can be difficult to see sometimes, especially at night. Usually, it is small burn or charring marks around the fasteners of the fuselage and they can be widely spaced along the aircraft. Other times, you may see more obvious damage such as missing static wick bases, or areas of composite structure charred or missing. I've seen areas of the nose landing gear doors blown off, trailing edges of rudders, ailerons, and horizontal stabilizer elevators damaged. Lightening strikes are one of our most dreaded repairs as it usually requires opening up a lot of the interior of the aircraft for fastener replacement, if you are lucky, or doing a fuselage repair or composite hot-bond repair, if you aren't. Sometimes, it means replacing a major flight control such as the rudder, ailerons, etc. All of this this is expensive, time consuming, and usually disrupts your other maintenance check schedules.
Gregory

OP here.

Haven't had time to elucidate more within this thread. A couple of things. The Captain with whom I spoke told me "well, I'm 3 weeks from retirement. I've only experienced one lightning strike before" [30 year career]

He told me that there was a flash, that he somehow knew something happened. Seems like the pilots here (looking at Arch, others, et. al.) with thousands of hours of 121 flight time... This pilot was clearly aware that SOMETHING happened to his 764. Anyway, the affected aircraft departed 21 hours late. The cherry pickers were on things..

N1120A wrote:

Sounds like the system worked and the walk around caught the damage. That should be a pretty easy fix for a medium sized station where Delta has line maintenance like SAN.

Precisely what my curiosity reflected. Cherry pickers scanning the aircraft and (I'm not an ATP or AME, but the initial Cherry Picker was halfway up the vert/stab and there was a clear (to me) black spot, the size of a grapefruit, something on which they were quite focused.

Anyway: This Captain had told me that this was only his 2nd Lightning he'd experienced. Again. As a pilot. In 30 years. So yeah, it was probably communicated to whatever Delta's resources were available at SAN to "repair" (speed tape? ) said issue.

Ultimately, that Captain experienced the 2nd strike of his 30 year career. I suspect the AMTs have experienced far more issues with such phenomena.

gregorygoodwin wrote:

I have been involved in many lighting strike inspections and repairs over my years in aircraft maintenance. Lightning strikes can be difficult to see sometimes, especially at night. Usually, it is small burn or charring marks around the fasteners of the fuselage and they can be widely spaced along the aircraft. Other times, you may see more obvious damage such as missing static wick bases, or areas of composite structure charred or missing. I've seen areas of the nose landing gear doors blown off, trailing edges of rudders, ailerons, and horizontal stabilizer elevators damaged. Lightening strikes are one of our most dreaded repairs as it usually requires opening up a lot of the interior of the aircraft for fastener replacement, if you are lucky, or doing a fuselage repair or composite hot-bond repair, if you aren't. Sometimes, it means replacing a major flight control such as the rudder, ailerons, etc. All of this this is expensive, time consuming, and usually disrupts your other maintenance check schedules.
Gregory

This is spot on…from another gray haired mechanic

it is mostly up to the pilot/scheduler's discretion.

some planes are more capable of thunderstorm flight than others.

and some thunderstorms are not too bad and isolated, while others are embedded and far reaching over many states. If a plane can see them and fly around them...it is safe