Risk Management Magazine

Whenever I hear about lightning-related injuries in the military or civilian community, I always share my experience. My hope is that it provides a little awareness about the dangers of a potentially deadly natural phenomenon.

Like the rest of the Army aviation world, the UAS element performs its mission planning and receives a mission brief as well as a weather brief. On this particular training flight, we went through the usual routine — mission brief, weather brief, preflight, engine run-up, trainee records review and briefing the trainee on his flight requirements.

My crew was fortunate that the terrain surrounding the airfield was flat, no major obstacles were present between the FAF and the runway, and clouds were above minimums. A similar mistake at many other airfields could have resulted in a controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) mishap with dire consequences.