Near-north Ontario, French River | Saw a pea harvester take a direct hit about 15 yrs ago.. Lighting hit the two-way antenna on top the cab. I was sitting on the road, maybe 100 yds away , in a truck waiting to load as the storm rolled through. Nothing but a bright flash, a shower of sparks and a VERY load boom. Kid in the operators seat heard the boom and saw the flash but was otherwise unhurt. If I remember right it fried the two way, the am/fm radio and took out most of the lights . A few bearings must have arced internally as they had a few go bad over the next couple days,, but beyond that the harvester wasn't damaged ...I don't think it even fried the ECM on the engine. Made for an exciting couple of minutes as there were 6 other harvestors, a couple dump carts. service trucks etc in the field at the time, they all saw it happen , a bit of a panic as the operator couldn't give his status over the radio... eventually another operator called him on his cell phone . Not surprisingly the kid had a new nickname after that... Sparky |
Lightning strike?
