A Columbia Airline B-737 flown by Aires Airline crashed Sunday August 14 while the pilot was attempting to land. The airplane broke apart into two pieces. Remarkably,  all the passengers survived except one person who died from a heart attack. Lightning strikes hit airplanes in flight all the time. Most lightning strikes cause little damage. Airplanes are designed to take hits from lightning. They have static wicks on the wing that discharge electricity away from the airplane when it's hit. The last airline crash that was caused by lightning was a Pan Am B-707 in 1962. Pan Am flight 214 was in a holding pattern when lightning hit the fuel tanks & ignited a spark of the fuel vapors that caused the plane to explode. Since that accident aircraft designers have tougher guidelines to make sure lightning is not a threat to aircraft. Today's aircraft have stronger protection of the fuel tanks to prevent any sparks in the tank. For instance, they have separate grounding for the fuel tank, shielding, & surge protection. As an additional precaution the FAA mandated jet fuel  to now have additives that reduce the amount of vapor produced.
In the case of the Columbia jet that crashed yesterday there were reports of lightning strikes on the airport at the time of the accident. Although the facts are not out yet. It appears that lightning was a factor. However, lightning didn't  break that aircraft in half. More then likely a hard landing is a more plausible cause. I suspect that the pilots were 100 feet in the air & lightning blinded them which would explain the appearance of the wreckage. In the coming weeks we will find out more details of the accident.  Below is a video of a airplane hit with lightning that just keeps flying along.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=036hpBvjoQw
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