The damage sustained by a Beechcraft King Air Model B90 aircraft by a single lightning discharge is presented and analyzed. The incident occurred during landing approach at Jackson, Michigan, on Feb. 19, 1971. In addition to the usual melted-metal damage at the lightning attachment points, there was severe implosion-type damage over a large area on the lower right side of the aircraft and impact- and crushing-type damage on the upper and lower surfaces on the left wingtip near the trailing edge. Analyses indicate that the implosion-type damage was probably caused by lightning-generated shock waves, that the impact-and crushing-type damage was caused by magnetic forces, and that the lightning discharge was a multiple strike with at least 11 strokes separated in time by about 4.5 milliseconds. The evidence indicates that the lightning discharge was rather different from the average in character severity.
Lightning damage to a general aviation aircraft: Description and analysis
1974-09-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
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