Helios plane struck by lihgtning

A HELIOS Airways plane was struck by lighting yesterday morning on its way from Larnaca Airport to pick up a number of passengers for a flight to Luton.

The Boeing 737was carrying 62 passengers and seven crew members when it left Larnaca for Paphos at around 9am. As the plane was coming in to land, the lightning struck but the landing was not affected, a spokeswoman at Helios told the Cyprus Mail.

“There was no danger for the passengers or crew,” the spokeswoman said. “The plane landed properly and was kept on the ground to be checked where it was established that some damage had been done to the front window.”

She said another Helios plane left Larnaca immediately and picked up the 62 passengers plus another 50 people that had been waiting in Paphos, and the new flight departed for the UK around lunchtime. “This is not something that happens very often,” the spokeswoman said.
According to the magazine Scientific American, it is estimated that on average, each airplane in the US commercial fleet is struck lightly by lightning more than once a year.

In fact, aircraft often trigger lightning when flying through a heavily charged region of a cloud. In these instances, the lightning flash originates from the airplane and extends away in opposite directions.

If lightning strikes a plane, nothing serious should happen because of the careful lightning protection engineered into the aircraft and its sensitive components. The last confirmed commercial plane crash in the US directly attributed to lightning occurred in 1967, when lightning caused a fuel tank explosion.

Since then, much has been learned about how lightning can affect airplanes. As a result, protection techniques have improved and nowadays if lightning strikes a plane, nothing serious should happen because of the careful lightning protection engineered into the aircraft and its sensitive components.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.