From YouTube: A Boeing 747 being struck by lightning. It's been circulating around for a while, but it's new to me, and apparently it's real. (No reason to doubt it's not.)
I haven't been able to find out exactly where and when this video was taken, but some versions of the video on YouTube state that it was an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight leaving Osaka, Japan.
Update: Accipiter tracked down some info about this video (see the comments). The plane was taking off from Kamatzu Air Force Base on the coast of the Sea of Japan during the winter sometime before 2003. According to the article Accipiter found, this video helped to demonstrate to researchers that "the vast majority of lightning strikes to aircraft are initiated by the aircraft, as opposed to the aircraft’s intercepting a discharge already in progress."
See the bottom of page 62 <a >on this page</a>. It's "an aircraft on takeoff from Kamatzu Air Force Base on the coast of the Sea of Japan during winter". And that paper was from 2003.
<a >This page</a> gives a little more information, too.
Posted by Accipiter on Thu Aug 21, 2008 at 10:17 PM
Nice find, Accipiter!
Posted by The Curator in San Diego on Thu Aug 21, 2008 at 10:39 PM
Here is how a lightning strike looks like filmed with high speed camera.
Comments
<a >This page</a> gives a little more information, too.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Slow-Motion-Lightning-1