Incident: Airblue A321 near Trabzon on Dec 30th 2008, lightning strike results in electrical failure

By Simon Hradecky, created Friday, Jan 2nd 2009 20:56Z, last updated Sunday, Jan 4th 2009 19:53Z Lightning traces on the nose of AP-BJB  (Photo: Usman Chaudhry)  An Airblue Airbus A321-200, registration AP-BJB performing flight ED-220 from Islamabad (Pakistan) to Manchester,EN (UK) with 180 people on board, was on approach to Trabzon (Turkey) at a height of about 1000 feet for a scheduled fuel stop, when the airplane was hit by a lightning causing damage to electrical systems. The crew declared emergency and managed to land the airplane safely on runway 29 and taxied the airplane to the apron, where passengers disembarked normally and were bussed to the terminal. The onward flight was cancelled, the passengers put to hotels. A replacement Airbus A319-100 registration AP-BIF resumed the flight the following day taking most of the passengers to Manchester with a delay of 28 hours, while the others were rebooked onto other flights. Passenger Usman Chaudhry told The Aviation Herald, that after a smooth approach the airplane entered turbulence while flying overhead the Black Sea about 10 minutes prior to landing. About 2 minutes later he heard a loud bang and saw a huge flash to the left side of the airplane. No announcements were made until after landing, no malfunction became apparent to the passengers. Cabin crew were getting ready for an evacuation. Usman Chaudhry perceived the cabin crew as very scared and in panic. After landing rumours circulated, that the flight crew was considering to ditch in the Black Sea. Ground staff told the passenger later, that the blast in the air could be heard on the ground. "I am glad, that I am safe and everyone on board was safe, too. For me this is all, what matters...", Usman Chaudhry concluded. Close up of the nose damage (Photo: Usman Chaudhry):