Sat, Feb 08, 2014
Controller Was Injured During A Thunderstorm Last September
The FAA will be inspecting control towers across the country following a lightning strike in Baltimore last September that injured an air traffic controller. Hundreds of towers are to be inspected, according to the agency.
The strike occurred September 12 last year at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, according to a report from the Associated Press, but the plan for inspection of towers was not made public until the AP made a Freedom of Information Act request concerning the incident. The FAA reportedly said in a statement that the Baltimore incident was "the first of its kind in FAA history," and that an assessment of all of its 440 control towers will be conducted. The agency will pay particular attention to more than 200 towers that were built prior to 1978, when it first standardized lightning protection systems for the facilities.
The controller was injured when he was activating an emergency generator during a thunderstorm as a preventative measure that is standard operating procedure for assuring runway lights and other equipment stay on during such weather events. His hand was on the generator switch when he saw a lightning flash and felt a jolt of electricity through his ring finger. He said in an interview it was like someone had hit the tip of his finger with a tool.
The controller, Edward Boyd, was taken to a hospital for treatment and was off work for two months following the incident. He says he still has lingering nerve problems in his hand that will require surgery. Still, he calls the accident a "fluke."
The FAA has earmarked $400,000 for the assessment of tower lightning protection systems, according to the AP. Preliminary work is already under way.
More News
Very High Frequency The frequency band between 30 and 300 MHz. Portions of this band, 108 to 118 MHz, are used for certain NAVAIDs; 118 to 136 MHz are used for civil air/ground voi>[...]
Aero Linx: Aviation Suppliers Association Established February 25, 1993, the Aviation Suppliers Association (ASA), based in Washington, D.C., is a not-for-profit association, repre>[...]
Have A Story That NEEDS To Be Featured On Aero-News? Here’s How To Submit A Story To Our Team Some of the greatest new stories ANN has ever covered have been submitted by our>[...]
From 2021 (YouTube Version): Colorado Campus Offers aVariety Of Aerospace Entertainment And Education Wings over the Rockies Exploration of Flight is the second location for the Wi>[...]
Also: Paramotor Champ's, Electric Ultralight, ICON BK Update, Burt Rutan at Oshkosh! The Popular Rotorcraft Association is reaching out for help in rebuilding their private runway >[...]