Lightning Often Strikes Twice

About this technology

Overview

Lightning is attracted by specific factors, including dense clusters of excess wires. Larger airports may have thousands of miles of wire and cable underground, and airports that were formerly U.S. military air bases could have 10 times more wire and cable underground than needed. This old, abandoned cable can easily draw a lightning strike and provide a path for lightning to spread to other places within a facility and destroy all electronics in its path. The Precision Lightning Strike Location System (PSLS) shows maintenance crews the location where lightning has hit. A crew can then correct the situation, usually by digging up unused cables and pipes, so that the attraction to lightning is minimized in the future.