The Encyclopedia of Mo...
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It is possible that the fury of an equatorial storm brought down Air France flight 447.
The plane’s flight path seems to have taken it through what meteorologists call the inter-tropical convergence zone.
This is where two air masses meet, sending huge storm clouds more than 40,000ft (12,000m) into the sky.
Eight years ago, former British Airways captain Roger Guiver was confronted with an enormous storm during a flight from Cape Town to London Heathrow.
"You take weather like that extremely seriously," he says. "You don’t go anywhere near it."
There are two potential dangers – lightning and severe turbulence.
Lightning
Lightning can strike anywhere – the charge flows around the plane’s skin and can damage electrical systems.
But aircraft wings have what are called "static wicks" which dissipate the electricity safely.
Bored, long-haul passengers looking out of the window at the wings will spot them – thin, aerial-like structures, trailing in the slipstream.
Roger Guiver says one dramatic warning of a possible lightning strike is St Elmo’s Fire – static that flickers over the windscreen as the plane flies through a storm.
But lightning almost never causes air crashes, at least directly.
The respected Aviation Safety Network database lists just 15 incidents in more than 50 years of aviation history.
The worst was the loss of an Iranian Air Force Boeing 747 in 1976 near Madrid. Lightning ignited vapour in a fuel tank, causing an explosion.
June 3, 2009
