IN PATH OF LIGHTNING
AEROPLANE ADVENTURE,
MACHINE ESCAPES,
An experience, unique in tho annals of aeroplane flying, recently happened to Captain E. D. C. Herne, engaged in tho London-Paris air service. While passing along tho airway for Paris Captain Herne saw heavy thunderclouds over tho Channel. Skirting round these, ho observed two or three vivid flashes of lightning close to his machine.
His, craft seemed to shudder and hesitate in its 100-milcs-an-hour flight, and was momentarily in the centre or a mass of light. Recovering itself rapidlv, the aeroplane continued smoothly in flight, neither Captain Herne nor his assistant suffering in any way from their weird experience. Shortly after, Captain Herne rang up tho nearest land station on his wireless telephone, and asked them whether they thought the trailing wire of his. receiving and transmitting apparatus might be connected with- this strange phenomenon. They replied, advising him to wind it in temporarily, which ho did.
Experts believe Captain Herne’s aeroplan happened, at the moment the shock was experienced, to be in the path of lightning which _ was rushing earthward; but the machine having no direct connection with the earth and the trailing wire acting as a sort of conductor, the lightning simply passed on its .way.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/ESD19220717.2.92
Bibliographic details
Evening Star, Issue 18022, 17 July 1922, Page 6
Word Count
206IN PATH OF LIGHTNING Evening Star, Issue 18022, 17 July 1922, Page 6
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