Quote:
Originally Posted by D as in David
Of all the airplane flights in a year, how many of them crash due to being struck by lightning?
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Great question. The FAA estimate is that for every 1,000 hours of flight a plane is struck by lightning. Small airframes are more likely to crash because they don't have the same protective features built into them. Commercial aircraft are now built like a Faraday cage after a number of crashes caused by lightning and flights are regulated to stay 20 nautical miles away from any cumulonimbus clouds. Small airframes are not constructed in the same way and are expected to follow the same procedures, but small aircraft can get overtaken by weather quickly. Lightning can cause damage to aerials, avionics, compasses, and puncture holes in the fuselage, radomes, and tail fins. Even though we have protective mechanisms in place we still see lightning strikes being a problem.
Now please continue to think that this single answer to our "interplanetary travel and atmosphere expert" as to why a UPA could possible crash is the only reason for such events, even when balanced out with numbers of our own failings under similar conditions of our own technology. It is always entertaining to watch the skeptics/cynics chase their own tails and deny the obvious.