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ā¬ ļø Previous capture (2024-08-19)
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Instantly, some doubts:
1) Poorly grounded is less attactive to lightning than well-grounded;
2) If it were an issue, grounding the plane is as simple as running a ground wire to any part of the aluminum skin;
3) Plenty of large metal objects don't terrify people working on them - container ships, factories, etc.
Sounds like they were feeding you bullshit. Perhaps they couldn't open a stuck door on a Boeing?
Jun 25 Ā· 2 months ago
š satch Ā· Jun 25 at 20:23:
@stack
here are my thoughts.
the primary concern about leaving airplane during a thunderstorm is that wet humans are actually possibly better conductors than airplane wheels.
And so after travelling through the metal part of the airplane, lightning might jump to a person to finish its path to the ground.
Also, even if lightning grounds through the airplane, the current flowing through the ground around the airplane can go up the legs of nearby people.
Does this seem right?
iām not exactly an expert, but I did recently take a course on lightning safety haha
š” Queen_City_Nerd Ā· Jun 25 at 20:31:
I don't think so @stack Yeah you ground the plane when you push fuel too, but that's not the same as being on a huge man made flat spot surrounded by hundreds of moving things. If it's storming visibility is down, wind is up and you're talking about possiblu union civilians not and aircraft carrier at war. A near strike could damage electronics needed to communicate or even operate the gate systems, the baggage retrevial systems, maybe comms with ground traffic. We spent a lot of time doing very small things at the highway department to ensure we didn't design things that might hurt people, even in the long shot scenerio.
āļø Morgan [OP] Ā· Jun 25 at 20:48:
@stack yeah, it occurred to me that you could probably ground one plane just fine ... the problem would be, how do you ensure all planes are grounded when they need to be, with planes coming and going and lots of people moving about?
It wasn't just our plane that had no ground staff, there was nobody moving around at all that I saw.
š stack Ā· Jun 26 at 02:34:
Generally, a metal object with a thick ground wire will be the path of least resistance. People, even when wet, are orders of magnitude higher in resistance, and are of no interest to lightning (when adjacent to a good conductor). A jetway would make it virtually impossible to get any current into you if you tried.
š stack Ā· Jun 26 at 02:36:
I think union rules negotiated in 1962 are a more likely explanation.
āļø Morgan [OP] Ā· Jun 26 at 06:45:
I found some discussion on a forum from 20 years ago :)
ā https://www.airliners.net/forum/viewtopic.php?t=267185
One person speaking about Delta said
We have the 5 mile rule with lightning, everything stops, if a plane lands then he has to wait until the storm has passed or we feel that our safety is no longer in danger before we go out and work it. I love my job but not to the point where i'll stand in a storm to unload bags.
š” Queen_City_Nerd Ā· Jun 28 at 10:54:
Impact of Lightning Strikes on Airport Facility and Ground Operations :Lightning strikes may wreak havoc on airports, causing minor to substantial destruction worth millions of dollars. This study focuses on incidents that occurred at United States airports between 1996 and 2020, including death, injury, infrastructure damage, worker compensation claims, and airline delays (1996-2020).
https://ojs.library.okstate.edu/osu/index.php/CARI/article/view/8533
Stuck ā I just learned ... am learning ... that when a plane arrives at the airport, if there is a thunderstorm in progress, they can't actually open the door. My first thought was: why not? Lightning is fine as long as you are near something that will take the strike, usually a building with a lightning rod. And then I realized, oh. If there's a storm you really don't want to be near a large poorly grounded metal object, like a plane. So it totally makes sense that the ground staff have to...