Air Force plane struck by lightning
A Royal New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 made an emergency landing at Auckland this morning after being struck by lightning.
Hot Topic
EARNINGS
A Royal New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 made an emergency landing at Auckland this morning after being struck by lightning.
It was hit shortly after leaving the Whenupai air base at 8.35am. It was headed for Wellington.
Squadron Leader Kavae Tamariki said there were no injuries to the people aboard – “about 19 [military] personnel and 7 crew”. According to official reports, there is minimal damage to the aircraft.
Checks were currently being carried out on the aircraft. Mr Tamariki said the event was “very unusual”, and that all the “stock standard” precautions were taken before leaving.
Some media outlets have reported the aircraft had problems landing.
Mr Tamariki told NBR there were no problems. “[The pilot] had to hold above the airfield to wait for a gap in the clouds to come in on [the plane’s] approach, but other than that, it was a pretty standard landing.”
An Air Force Orion was hit by lightning in Canada last year.
“There was a bit of damage to that aircraft, to the systems, but the personnel on board were fine. All they said was they heard a really big bang, and then that was it.”
But Mr Tamariki couldn’t say at this point whether a similar level of damage could be expected here, until checks were completed.
He was also unable to say when checks would be complete.
“They’ll go through the check-list piece by piece, to make sure that the aircraft’s air-worthy, and if it’s okay, they’ll put the aircraft back in the air and it’ll continue its flight.”
Charlotte Woodfield
Fri, 08 Jul 2011
Fri, 08 Jul 2011
© All content copyright NBR. Do not reproduce in any form without permission, even if you have a paid subscription.
Air Force plane struck by lightning
15759