Could Your Airplane Get Struck by Lightning? A Pilot Reveals Just How Dangerous Flying in a Thunderstorm Could Be
I recently joined a tour of Sicily’s Mount Etna that was supposed to include a hike on the Italian volcano’s upper slope following a roughly 9,500-foot ascent in a 4×4 vehicle. Unfortunately for my fellow adventurers and me, rather than witnessing spectacular lava flows, we ran into a bout of bad weather.
As we stood amid the coal-black volcanic landscape snapping photos and watching lightning flash in the distance, several women’s long hair suddenly began to stand on end, reminding me of those mad-scientist Van de Graaff electrostatic generators that always got laughs in high school physics class. This was Mother Nature’s not-so-amusing way of warning us of the very real danger that lightning could strike nearby. Our guide rushed us back into the truck for safety, and we descended the volcano as the storm rolled through.
The experience really got me wondering: If our truck could shield us from dangerous lightning on the surface of a volcano, just how safe would I be aboard an airplane traveling tens of thousands of feet above Earth in unstable air, surrounded by storm clouds—and what would happen if lightning struck that plane mid-flight?
To find out the answer (and to proactively put my mind at ease for my next air travel involving bad weather), I spoke with Daniel Bubb, PhD, a former pilot and the author of Landing in Las Vegas: Commercial Aviation and the Making of a Tourist City. Keep reading to find out just how worried he says passengers should be when flying in and around storms.
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Could lightning hit an airplane?
Yes. Lightning strikes on planes can happen because aircraft must regularly fly near or through thunderstorm systems, where the air is charged. When a plane enters these regions, it can briefly disturb the electric field, making it easier for electricity to jump to the aircraft as lightning instead of passing through the less conducive surrounding air.
Airbus notes that in-service aircraft are struck by lightning about once per year, which works out, on average, to roughly once every 3,000 flight hours, according to the company. To put that into perspective, a plane would need to make about 250 round trips between New York City and Los Angeles (at 12 hours each trip) before it would statistically get hit.
How dangerous is this?
Even when lightning makes direct contact with a plane, it usually has extremely limited impact on the aircraft and no effect on passengers. “Passenger planes are designed to mimic a Faraday cage, which acts as a receptor to absorb the electricity,” Bubb explains.
In practice, a metal structure—such as the 4×4 truck on my trip to the volcano or the body of an airplane—conducts electricity along its outer shell, allowing the current to travel across the exterior surface before safely exiting rather than passing through the cabin and the people inside.
That same principle also explains why an airplane passenger touching something metal inside the cabin, such as a seat frame, would still be safe in the event of a lightning strike. The aircraft’s structure conducts the electrical current primarily along its metal skin, while the inside of the aircraft remains electrically balanced, so electricity won’t flow through it. Imagine lightning as water from a faucet and a plane as a sealed tin can under its stream. The outside may get wet, but everything inside stays dry.
When can lightning be a bigger problem?
“It is rare, but the electricity from the lightning can interfere with the avionics and instruments,” Bubb says. “That would prevent the pilots from being able to talk to air-traffic controllers and use certain cockpit systems.”
Thankfully, there are numerous backup instruments and system redundancies built into planes to avoid scenarios like this. “I think the biggest misconception people have about airplanes that get hit by lightning is that they will explode, or the engines will fail, and the airplane will fall out of the sky,” says Bubb. “I attribute part of this to Hollywood movies. The likelihood of that happening is zero.”
Do airline pilots take any particular precautions to avoid lightning strikes?
Pilots always take precautions when it comes to severe weather. “We do not know the severity of a thunderstorm until we enter one, which is why we try to avoid them,” Bubb says. He adds that despite pre-departure weather briefings and helpful cockpit radar instruments, “lightning can hit a passenger plane during any phase of flight.”
In the rare event lightning does do damage to the airplane—which is designed to withstand such strikes—the pilot would follow standard protocol by flying the airplane away from the thunderstorm and landing at the nearest airport.
What should you do if your plane has been hit by lightning?
If your plane is ever struck by lightning, you might see a flash and feel a bump—but that’s usually about it. In such cases, Bubb advises, “stay calm, because even though it might be startling, the plane is safe, and the pilots are well qualified to handle any issues that might arise because of the lightning.”
And if you’re worried your aircraft was damaged in a past electrical storm? Don’t be. “If an airplane is struck by lightning, a mechanic will inspect it to see if there is any damage before the airplane reenters service,” Bubb says. Airbus, for example, has guidelines that include multiphase post-lightning-strike surface and system inspections, as well as a strict maintenance process to ensure planes remain 100% safe to fly.
Sources:
- Dan Bubb, former first officer at Air Vegas Airlines, professor in residence at the University of Nevada and author of Landing in Las Vegas; email interview, June 2026
- Airbus Operations: “Lightning Strikes”
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