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| Date: | Monday 30 March 2020 |
| Time: | 15:23 |
| Type: |  Pilatus PC-12/47E |
| Owner/operator: | Jetfly Aviation |
| Registration: | LX-JFD |
| MSN: | 1787 |
| Year of manufacture: | 2018 |
| Engine model: | P&W Canada PT6A-67 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 3 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Substantial |
| Category: | Accident |
| Location: | near Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE/LFMN) -
 France
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Passenger - Non-Scheduled/charter/Air Taxi |
| Departure airport: | Paris-Le Bourget Airport (LBG/LFPB) |
| Nice-Côte d'Azur Airport (NCE/LFMN) | |
| Investigating agency: | BEA |
| Confidence Rating: |  Accident investigation report completed and information captured |
On the descent to Nice Airport, the crew of the Pilatus PC-12/47E attempted to avoid thunderstorm cells by using the aircraft's weather radar. They encountered freezing conditions and moderate turbulence. Shortly before emerging from the clouds and as the flight conditions became calmer, the aircraft was struck by lightning. Taking into account the distribution of lightning recorded in the same period, it is probable that the presence of the airplane participated in the triggering of the electric shock phenomenon. The intensity of the discharge current was very high and caused damage to the propeller that the manufacturer had never observed in operating conditions before, without however its structure having been compromised.
A few days later, during the inspection of the aircraft, other damage, structural, not related to the lightning strike, was discovered at the level of the left wing. The wing had to be replaced.
The investigation showed that this structural damage occurred between November 16, 2019, the date of exit from the last maintenance operation, and March 30, 2020, the lightning strike. An overload of the wing in flight is probably the cause, although a hard landing cannot be completely ruled out. It was not possible to determine or date precisely the event that caused it. The conditions of the last flight were suitable for high loads to be applied to the structure. However, the load factors, speeds and roll values recorded do not highlight a situation that could have resulted in structural overload of the wing during the last six flights.
Accident investigation:
 |
|
Sources:
https://bea.aero/en/investigation-reports/notified-events/detail/accident-to-the-pilatus-pc12-registered-lx-jfd-operated-by-jetfly-aviation-occured-on-30-03-2020-at-nice/
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Oct-2021 08:33 | harro | Added |
| 14-Oct-2021 08:34 | harro | Updated [Time, Total occupants, Location, Country, ] |
| 12-Jul-2022 19:51 | jessicar | Updated |
| 12-Jul-2022 19:51 | harro | Updated [Cn, ] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
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