Earlier this week, an Austrian Airlines flight bound for Naples returned to Vienna following a lightning strike.
Information regarding this incident has come to light. Here is what we know so far.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Austrian Airlines Flight OS543: Vienna to Naples…
Austrian Airlines flight OS543, which suffered a lightning strike, is a routine scheduled flight between Vienna and Naples.
The aircraft involved in the incident was OE-LWH.
As per data from Planespotters.net, OE-LWH is a 12.5 year old Embraer E195 that started out life with Lufthansa CityLine in October 2011.
By August 2016, the aircraft was handed over to Austrian Airlines.
Of the E195 variant, OS has 17 in the fleet, of which all but one are in active service.
Furthermore, the average age for the variant at the airline stands at 12.7 years.
Austrian Airlines flight OS543 departed Vienna at 1831 local time on April 13, bound for Naples.
As per The Aviation Herald, the aircraft stopped it’s climb at FL220 following a lightning strike after departure from Vienna.
From there, a u-turn was made back to the Austrian airport, where it landed safely around 40 minutes after departure.
Aircraft Grounded for Three Days Following Lightning Strike…
Data from RadarBox shows that OE-LWH, the Austrian Airlines E190 that operated the flight between Vienna and Napoli, remained grounded for three days following the lightning strike incident.
Furthermore, the aircraft re-entered commercial service on April 18.
Since the incident, it has operated flights to:
- Warsaw
- Innsbruck
- Graz
- Munich
It remains clear that the damage experienced by the aircraft following the lightning strike has been fixed.
For now, all eyes will be on the aircraft in case similar incidents happen in the short-term future.
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