Description

On 29 November 2014, an Airbus A330-200 (VH-XFJ) being operated by Virgin Australia Airlines on a scheduled passenger flight from Sydney to Perth landed at destination in day VMC during a thunderstorm. After clearing the runway, ATC advised that the aircraft would have to hold position because the ramp was closed due to the risk to continued operations during the thunderstorm. After approximately an hour, the aircraft was able to taxi to its allocated gate but almost immediately lightning was seen to strike the tail of the aircraft and the ramp supervisor, who had just connected his headset to the aircraft flight crew/ground crew intercom panel in heavy rain. He received an electric shock consistent with a high voltage electrical discharge and was rendered unconscious. A nearby colleague was burned but remained conscious.

Investigation

An Investigation was carried out by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB). It was established that on the day of the occurrence, at about 1435 local time, all work on the ramp at the aircraft destination had stopped due to an electrical storm overhead. After about 40 minutes, with no further lightning activity observed on the weather radar, ground crew resumed their duties. However, soon after this, cloud-to-cloud lightning was observed and lightning struck the ramp behind a parked aircraft so all ramp work was again suspended. Thereafter, the Ramp Supervisor reported having been monitoring the situation so as to determine when it would be safe for staff to resume work.