Can Lightning Strike a Plane?
Yes — routinely. Aircraft are engineered for it. · Updated May 2026
Yes, lightning strikes commercial aircraft, and it happens far more often than passengers usually imagine — roughly once per aircraft per year on average. Almost every strike is uneventful: the aircraft acts as a Faraday cage, channelling the current along its outer skin and dispersing it back to the atmosphere through static-discharge wicks on the wings and tail. Aircraft are certified to FAA 14 CFR Part 25 (and equivalent EASA CS-25) standards that explicitly require lightning protection of structure, fuel systems, and avionics. The last commercial-airliner accident attributed primarily to a lightning strike in the US was in 1967 — before modern certification rules took full effect.
How often does it actually happen?
Industry estimates and flight-safety publications converge on roughly one strike per aircraft per year, sometimes cited as "once to twice a year" for high-utilization commercial jets. Strikes are most common in:
- →Climb and descent, between roughly 5,000 and 15,000 ft, where the aircraft passes through electrically active cloud layers.
- →Near convective weather — even when the aircraft is not in the storm cell itself, charged air around it can discharge through the airframe.
- →"Aircraft-initiated" strikes: in many cases the aircraft itself triggers the discharge by flying through a strong ambient electric field.
Why nothing usually happens inside the cabin
A closed conductive shell distributes electric charge over its outer surface, leaving the interior field essentially zero. A commercial airframe — whether aluminum or composite with conductive mesh — is engineered as exactly this kind of shell. The current enters at one extremity (typically a wingtip, nose, or tail), travels along the skin, and exits at another extremity. The cabin and avionics bays sit inside the protected interior.
Small needle-like wicks along the trailing edges of the wings and tail bleed off built-up static charge during normal flight, and help dissipate residual current after a strike. They're visible from a window seat.
Every metallic component is electrically bonded to the airframe with low-resistance straps, so there are no isolated metal pieces that could float to a different potential and arc internally.
Modern aircraft replace the air above the fuel with nitrogen, so even a worst-case spark inside a tank has no oxygen to ignite with. This addresses one of the historical lightning failure modes.
Composite materials (carbon fibre) are less conductive than aluminum. Manufacturers embed a fine copper or bronze mesh in the outer skin (e.g., Boeing 787, Airbus A350) so the same Faraday-cage principle still applies.
The FAA Part 25 certification stack
Large transport aeroplanes (more than 19 passengers) certified in the United States must comply with 14 CFR Part 25. Several specific paragraphs address lightning:
- →14 CFR 25.581 — Lightning Protection. Structural surfaces must safely conduct lightning currents without endangering the aeroplane.
- →14 CFR 25.954 — Fuel System Lightning Protection. Prevents ignition of fuel vapours by direct or induced lightning effects.
- →14 CFR 25.1316 — Electrical and Electronic System Lightning Protection. Critical avionics must continue to function (or recover within a defined time) after a strike.
EASA's CS-25 specification (used for European-certified aircraft) and other authorities (Transport Canada, ANAC Brazil, etc.) mirror these requirements. Compliance is demonstrated through laboratory tests at the component level, swept-stroke testing on full airframes, and computational electromagnetics modelling.
What you might notice as a passenger
If lightning strikes your aircraft, you may notice some or none of the following:
- →A bright flash outside the window — often followed by a dull boom or sharp crack.
- →Cabin lights flicker briefly. Entertainment screens may reset.
- →A brief radio interference for the crew, who may inform passengers afterwards.
- →Nothing at all — many strikes go entirely unnoticed by passengers until ground crew finds the entry/exit burn marks during post-flight inspection.
After landing, the aircraft undergoes a lightning-strike inspection per the manufacturer's procedures. Small burn marks at entry and exit points are common; serious structural damage is rare. The aircraft is returned to service after inspection and any necessary repairs.
When pilots avoid storms anyway
Even though lightning itself is well-handled by the airframe, thunderstorms contain other hazards: severe turbulence, hail, downdrafts, microbursts, and icing. Pilots use onboard weather radar and ATC information to deviate around active convective cells — typically by 20+ nautical miles. So the rerouting around a thunderstorm you sometimes see on a flight tracker is mostly about turbulence and hail, not lightning specifically.
Sources
- • Federal Aviation Administration — 14 CFR Part 25, Subpart D (Design and Construction), §§ 25.581, 25.954, 25.1316.
- • EASA — CS-25 Certification Specifications for Large Aeroplanes.
- • Flight Safety Foundation — "When Lightning Strikes," AeroSafety World.
- • National Lightning Safety Institute (NLSI) — guidance on aviation lightning exposure.
- • National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) — accident archive on lightning-attributed events.