Last night, a Condor Airbus A320 operating a flight between Hamburg and Antalya suffered a lightning strike not long after departure.
Incident: Condor Flight Hamburg-Antalya Suffers Lightning Strike…
Condor flight DE154 was a routine flight between Hamburg and Antalya, and was operated by D-AICG, one of the airline’s Airbus A320 aircraft.
As per data from Planespotters.net, the airframe is 24.8 years old at the time of writing, having started out life with Condor Berlin back in March 1999.
By July 2002, the aircraft was handed over to Thomas Cook Airlines, before being handed back over to the German leisure carrier in May 2004.
The carrier has 21 units of the type in its fleet, consisting of 20 in active service, and one currently parked at the time of writing.
As per The Aviation Herald, it is understood that DE154 from Hamburg was struck by lightning on the climb-out to Antalya.
Pilots onboard continued the climb despite this, before stopping at FL270, and making a decision to divert to Munich following this incident.
At the time of writing (16/10/23), D-AICG is still on the ground in Munich, with no indication into when it will be released for commercial service again, as damage assessment needs to take place following the lightning strike.
Passengers affected by this were placed on D-AICF, another Airbus A320 in the fleet, and continued on to Antalya, arriving seven hours late.
All eyes will be on Condor to see how long it will take this affected aircraft to become airworthy for commercial service again.
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