Originally Posted by
Duke787
First off I have to start by saying enormous props to all UA pilots - especially the sUA pilots who were piloting UA 480 tonight (8/15) from RDU - SFO.
My question (which may have been answered previously) is about thunderstorms. I have gone around thunderstorms many times in my life but tonight for the first time ever, we not only flew through the storm, we were struck by lightning multiple times (at least 5-10 but likely more because I stopped watching plus we were getting struck on both sides and I was only watching out of the right side).
From a pilot's perspective how much concern goes through your head when you see lightning striking the plane?
Lightning very rarely causes any real damage other than possibly a tiny dent in the skin. It's more a realization that you are too close to the storm more than worry for the plane. As far as deliberately going through a storm, that is extremely unlikely as that is 100% opposite of the operating procedures at United and the probability of both pilots thinking it's ok is zero. More than likely, it was night and the storm was not painting on the radar as the actual intensity, or perhaps not paining at all. Radar can only see liquid water very well and dry top storms or ice crystals don't show up for the most part and at night you could get too close to a storm since you can't visually see the cell out the windows. It's probably what happened recently to the AA 787 in China that got damaged by hail and the Delta flight that had to divert to Denver due to hail damage.