In a freak natural occurrence, lightning damaged a runaway at the Pierre Regional Airport during a thunderstorm Monday morning.
The lightning struck runway 25, blasting several holes in the pavement. Mike Isaacs, the airport manager, said the holes were “substantial damage” – up to 10 inches deep in places – to the tarmac. Asphalt debris was found in a 100-yard radius around the site.
The runway was closed when airport personnel found the damage. The holes were repaired by Monday afternoon.
Isaacs said that runway was not the favored runway Monday, so planes were not scheduled to land on it. No flights were cancelled, diverted or delayed because of the holes or the repair work, he said.
City Engineer John Childs said workers from Morris Inc. repaired the damage, which he characterized as “routine maintenance.”
Childs said he could not recall another time this had occurred.
“This is like someone backing into a stop sign, how do you plan for that?” he said.
Like Childs, Isaacs said he doesn’t know of another instance of lightning striking the runway. However, he’s heard about a similar incident in Rapid City.
Calls to the Federal Aviation Administration for information about the frequency of lightning striking airport runways were not returned by Tuesday evening.
The incident was at least the second of its kind this month. Lighting also struck a runaway at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport in Florida June 8, causing three holes in the tarmac. Repairs took an hour, but diverted and delayed dozens of flights.
Mike Fowle, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Aberdeen, said lighting develops when there is a charge differential – a gap between a negative charge around an object and a positive charge in the atmosphere. However, the exact conditions that cause lightning and determine where it will strike are still not well understood.
“It’s one of those random things in nature that happens,” he said.
Lightning usually strikes taller objects, such as buildings, but there are cases when it will hit flat areas as well. Incidents of lightning hitting sandy beaches, roads and runways are rare, but not unheard of, Fowle said.
Story and photo: http://www.capjournal.com
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