Plane Carrying Kennedy Hit by Lightning (Ted)

breitbart.com ^ | may 14,2006 | breitbart

[xjcsa]

Another close call for the swimmer - wasn't he almost on the Wellstone plane that crashed?

[Antique Gal]

Damn!!!

[mafree]

Musta been some plane to be able to carry Fat Ted.

[TomB]

I couldn't believe what I heard last nite during the NASCAR race. During a replay of a wreck involving Brian Vickers, Chris Myers said something like, "Brian, driving like Patrick Kennedy...."

Ouch.

[Tennessee_Bob]

If the propeller fell off, I would have suspected Arkanside

Yeah - especially in light of the fact that the Citation 550 is a jet aircraft - propeller loss would be a shocking cause of accident... :)

[Wristpin]

How much oil was wasted during this junket to a podunk college??

[Tennessee_Bob]

Ted Kennedy would never waste oil. He's a big believer in conservation of energy and resources, and a believer in development and use of renewable energy resources. That's why he's backing the building of the windfarm off the coast. It's just that the evil media is misquoting him and making it sound like he's against it.

[COUNTrecount]

[El Gato]

I thought most planes are lightening proofed these days?

Nothing is lighting proof, some things are more resistant than others though. Aircraft are not especially vulnerable to lighting, because they aren't grounded. But lighting can cause power disruptions by induced voltages and currents in the electrical and electronic systems. On very rare occasions, lighting will put a hole in a aircraft, and in even rarely occasions set off the fuel.

[El Gato]

What a (typically) brilliant statement from the press! I presume that they mean the autopilot was disabled. Otherwise, I picture the pilot outside flapping his arms towing the jet???

If they lost all electrical power, that means they lost the navigation systems (LORAN, GPS, whatever) as well. They may have lost power boost for the controls too, depending on how they work, they surely would have lost any artifical "feel" system, unless it's a purely mechanical one. They could have lost some of the primary flight instrumentation as well, such as the angle of attack indicator, the attitude indicator, etc. Not so easy to fly an aircraft without those, especially in a storm.

[skeptoid]

'Is that the same machine that brought down Wellstone?'

No ..... that was a Beech 'King Air' (100 series IIRC).

Here's a Cessna 550:

[El Gato]

An electrical discharge from the earth to the sky or vice versa can transit an aircraft but aircraft manufacturer's have put devices into place to deal with the electricity that flows.

Lightening also discharges from cloud to cloud. An aircraft need only be at a different potential, that is voltage, to be struck. They aren't as vulnerable as say houses, but they can be hit, and if they are, their systems are often disrupted.

[El Gato]

If all power was lost the plane couldn't be flown manually could it.

Probably, on smaller aircraft the controls are usually either strictly mechanical, or with a mechanical only back up. Not sure if the engines need electrical power to keep turning and burning, but they might not.

[Thumper1960]

God finally had it with the drunken, slanderous, adulterous, killer?

Must've changed his mind, made Teddy soil himself (as if the boozer hasn't done that before), and decided taking the innocent down with the flabby one was not a charitable thing to do.

[Gaffer]

Oh! What COULD have been.........

[Chode]

ssshhhhhhhh... hush now. 8^)

[skeptoid]

'If all power was lost the plane couldn't be flown manually could it.'

Yes, it could. A memorable example is the Gimli Glider (gim'-lee) a Boeing 767 that ran out of fuel and dead-sticked an "impeccable" landing on an abandonded runway being used as a racetrack!

It's called 'manual reversion'.

[slapshot]

I would have thought that etoh + lightning = bigass boom

[ElkGroveDan]

Only the good die young.

[YouPosting2Me]

ZOTTED by Carma!