A Brief History
On December 24, 1971, a bolt of lightning took down a Lockheed 188A turboprop airliner over Peru, killing all but one of the 82 people aboard. Thunderstorms and lightning are just one of many ways Mother Nature discourages and even puts an end to manned flight by humans in airplanes.
Digging Deeper
Besides weather, birds have a long history of bringing down airplanes, including the famous “Miracle on the Hudson” event in 2009. Birds are so dangerous to airplanes, that many airports employ a variety of means to keep birds away from runways, from noisemakers and landscaping to the use of dogs, netting, ground spikes, lasers, and even drones that simulate predatory birds such as falcons. And yes, real falcons and other birds of prey are also used for avian control.
Other natural factors that make flying dangerous include bright sunlight, heavy fog and cloud cover, high winds, especially gusting unpredictable wind, ice build-up on windows and wings, dust storms, and even volcanic ash. Snow, ice, and water from floods or heavy rain make taking off and landing airplanes rather dangerous as well, all proving that Mother Nature may not approve of people flying!
Question for students (and subscribers) to ponder: Have you ever encountered Mother Nature trying to stop you from flying?
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Jeppesen. Jeppesen Aviation Weather. Jeppesen, 2013.
Macy, Carolyn. Miracle on the Hudson. Carolyn Macy, 2017.
The featured image in this article, a map by NNW of the approximate flight path of OB-R-941, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
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