Tuesday, February 05, 2008

St. Elmo's Fire

hola...

i just watched air crash investigation- flt 9 British Airways 747-200...and then came across a new term for-St. Elmo's Fire ...u wonder what its mean?

from Wikipidea (as i too lazy to check with other sources) ;
electrical weather phenomenon in which luminous plasma is created by a coronal discharge originating from a grounded object in an atmospheric electric field (such as those generated by thunderstorms or thunderstorms created by a volcanic explosion)

this phenomenon not only occurs on air,but initially discovered on the ship at sea.the name is taken from St. Erasmus of Formiae (also called St. Elmo), the patron saint of the sailors.
Physically, St. Elmo's Fire is a bright blue or violet glow, appearing like fire in some circumstances, from tall, sharply pointed structures such as lightning rods, masts, spires and chimneys, and on aircraft wings. St. Elmo's Fire can also appear on leaves, grass, and even at the tips of cattle horns[2]. Often accompanying the glow is a distinct hissing or buzzing sound.

so,what happen to the flight 9 BA is,the aircraft flown into the cloud of dust from a volcanic explosion which couldn't be detected by the weather radar,resulting in the failure of all the 4 engine.the aircraft diverted to Halim Airport in Jakarta to make an emergency landing.the engines were able to restart as the engine temperature dropped,but they still have to make emergency landing with zero visibility (the windscreen were damaged by the volcanic ashes) and unserviceable glide slope system.but,the tech crew did a good job to land the aircraft safely.

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