Can thunderstorms affect plane travel?

Question

If there are thunderstorms when your flying (in an aeroplane), does it affect the flight in any way?

How about Rain alone?

Answer 1

Most definitely!... A pilot..(like me), will arrive ahead of time, and will receive a weather or WX report for the intended route of the flight. I will then discuss this with the F/O, or "Co-pilot", and together we will finalize our flight plan. We will determine if it is more efficient, and safe to either fly over, or around the system, or storms.

As a passenger, you may feel some turbulence when in the vicinity of a storm. This is due to the volatile winds that "fuel" the storms. One question I am asked is "should the wings be moving up and down so much?" Yes!! Think of the wings as shock absorbers. Some aircraft have wings that flex more than others, but all aircraft are designed to take an extraordinary amount of turbulence without damage, so don't worry!

A storm surrounding the destination, will also have an adverse affect. When landing in bad weather, or IFR (Instrument Flight Rules), ATC (Air Traffic Control) will need to space the aircraft a little farther apart when making the approach to the airport.

I could get very specific...but, I believe this should give you a good idea!

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the view of this beautiful planet we call "Earth"!

Answer 2

Yes, thunderstorms are amongst the greatest hazards to aviation out there (beside birds). In most cases, air traffic control will divert an aircraft is there seems to be thunderstorm activity on the plane's flight path.
Besides making it a very unconfortable flight, thunderstorms have several possible hazzards to air traver
- severe up and down drafts
- high winds
- heavy rain
- severe lightning
- possible icing (not thaat bog a deal for larger aircraft)
- possible hail (big hazard to all forms of air travel)

Answer 3

Something that most people do not realize is that the one way thunderstorms most affect travel is it prevents ground crews from loading planes.

While a plane can actually withstand some bad weather, including lighting strikes, the humans that load the baggage and fuel the plane cannot.

I once sat in an airport for a few hours waiting out a delay due to a storm. The airline informed us that they could fly in this weather, but the problem was during lightning, they are not able to have people loading the bags as it is not safe for them, so we actually were waiting out the storm so that the baggage guys could do their jobs

Answer 4

OK a plane can get struck by lightning but it has no effect i do physics at school and they told us it hits the plane but goes round they out side and effects no one it cant muck up the plane dont worry it wont kill you or anyone Since the outer skin of most airplanes is primarily aluminum, which is a very good conductor of electricity; the secret to safe lightning hits is to allow the current to flow through the skin from the point of impact to some other point without interruption or diversion to the interior of the aircraft

Answer 5

Definitely. Thunderstorms have massive updrafts and downdrafts, and can cause severe turbulence even in the largest of aircraft. Even mild thunderstorms should be avoided by small aircraft, and all aircraft try to avoid larger ones.

Answer 6

yes. Lightning hitting a plane doesn't really affect the plane that much but it would be best to avoid it at all costs.

Answer 7

I can cause a lot of turbulance and in more severe storms it may cause some interfrence with flight tools (but very rare nowdays I think)

Answer 8

Dr. Strangelove is right. Also, there's the tendency that the frequency's mostly affected as well as the tendency to have zero visibility.

Answer 9

yea, the lightning may stirke the plane, the wind may blow it off course...the cloud cover may make the pilot not be able to see well.