MacDill Airman rectifies Army Helo hit by lightning, twice

by Staff Sgt. Brandon Shapiro
6th Air Mobility Wing Public Affairs

10/25/2013 - MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. -- Lightning never strikes the same spot twice, right? Well, for Army Blackhawk helicopter 27107 that was true, until a second strike blasted its tail rotor leaving it once again grounded.

Noticing unreliable compass deviation, the testing crew of the U.S. Army Reserve's 5 Batalion-159th Aviation Regiment set out to find the source of the problem.

Remembering the characteristics that resulted from the aircraft being hit eight months prior, the maintainers searched for signs of a lightning strike--and that's exactly what they found.

"Up on one of the tail rotor paddles we found various burn marks which are telltale signs of a strike," said Avery Whetstine, an aircraft mechanic for the 5B-159th AR's aircraft. "We couldn't believe that it had happened to the same aircraft again."

After ripping apart the tail section from rotor to horizontal stabilator to assess further damage, the maintenance crew noticed electrical arching had occurred, leaving "off the charts" magnetization.

"This sort of rare but hazardous occurrence is more than likely the culprit for the errant magnetic fields that are affecting our magnetic flux valve," said Staff Sgt. Mark Bradley, Aviation Support Facility Clearwater aircraft inspector. "Due to the nature of the findings, we must rely on our Air Force counterparts to diagnose and fix the problematic areas."

That's when the skill and expertise of Tech. Sgt. Stanley Mays, 6th Maintenance Squadron nondestructive inspection specialist, was called into play.

"Upon hearing about the lightning strike, I knew that there were going to be major magnetization issues, but after taking the readings--I was shocked to see just how high they actually were," commented Mays. "This was a first for me; it's not often that a NDI specialist conducts a procedure like this."

After completing a series of specialized demagnetization procedures over the mounting section of the tail's stabilator, the readings were returned to normal and the problem areas were neutralized.

As the aircraft is again pieced back together and functional checks are made, the members of the 5B-159th AR are keeping their fingers crossed that the demagnetization is what was needed to get the search and rescue aircraft flying once again.