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Lightning strikes twice: When should you panic on a plane?

Something Offbeat
Something Offbeat
Episode • Jul 24, 2023 • 13m

Have you ever been on a plane while a lightning storm raged just outside the windows? Passengers on a Spirit Airlines flight late last year had to make an emergency landing in Philadelphia when lightning stuck their plane twice. This isn’t the first or last time it’s happened. These incidents made the “Something Offbeat” team wonder: when should we panic on a plane? To help us learn more, Dr. Kristin Calhoun, a research scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association National Severe Storms Lab in Oklahoma and Rhett Dennerline, a longtime pilot and aeronautical engineer, joined the show.

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