Moderators: richierich, ua900, PanAm_DC10, hOMSaR
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.
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
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?
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.
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.
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.
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