“Thunder is good,
thunder is impressive;
but it is lightning
that does the work.”
Mark Twain

Kathy, and her traveling companions on the KLM flight from San Francisco to Amsterdam, received quite a greeting as they descended into the Amsterdam airport. Without warning, there was a loud “Clunk!” sound. This was not a sound that could be easily ignored. Soon after, a flight attendant made the announcement that the plane had been struck by lightning. She assured passengers that this was not a problem, and, in fact, that it happens all the time. 

All the time? To the best of my knowledge, I have never been on a plane that’s been struck by lightning. Scientists claim, however, that it really does happen fairly regularly — once every 1,000 flight hours, in fact.

One might rightly believe that this would be cause for concern. Apparently, it’s not. The last time a plane went down due to a lightning strike was in 1967. Since that time, aircraft design has been improved to deal with such acts of nature. When a plane is struck by lightning today, modern aircraft are designed to withstand such strikes. The energy from the lightning strike follows a conductive path, typically on the exterior of the aircraft, and exits at another point without entering the cabin of the plane. 

What a way to begin a trip! No matter what Kathy experiences during the remainder of her travels in Spain and Italy, she already has a shocking story to tell the grandkids when she gets back home.