Crew aboard a U.S.-bound plane discovered a missing window pane at 13,000 feet
wamu.org
A U.S.-bound plane took off from London last month with four damaged window panes, including two that were completely missing, according to U.K. air accident investigators.
No one was injured by the window malfunctions, which appear to have been caused by high-power lights used in a film shoot, the U.K.’s Air Accident Investigation Branch reported in a special bulletin published Nov. 4.
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How did high power lights even damage the windows so badly that they are literally missing?
From the article
"The lights, which were intended to give the illusion of a sunrise, were placed about 20 to 30 feet from the aircraft, shining on first the right, then the left side of the craft for over nine hours in total.
A foam liner had melted away from at least one of the windows and several window panes appeared to have been warped by the thermal heat. "
I’m surprised by that, because I’m having a hard time picturing a setup that was all that much hotter than, say, sitting on the tarmac in Phoenix in the summer.
Stage lights are hot as fuck dude, even hung from rafters you can feel their directionality on stage.
Hell find someone who likes flashlights and ask to borrow a 1000 lumen lights then shine it at your hand, it gets noticeably hot very rapidly.
I still can't believe collecting flashlights is a real hobby.
Yeah..... Me too..... I Don't at all have several....
I get it, but if you work in a trade flashlights are part of life and a shitty one legit ruins your day. (Like I've legit gone office space printer style on more than one for being junk and fucking up when least appropriate)
I have nothing against the hobby, I just don't get it myself. The hobby definitely makes more sense if you actually use flashlights very often.
Yeah one fleshlight is more than enough for me.
Especially from 20 feet away
Am I missing something or is the term "thermal heat" just stupid? Are they trying to sound? Or is there some other meaning of heat that I'm unaware of and that would make sense in this context and therefore the description is needed?
I'm genuinely confused...
Huh, to be honest, when i read this, it didn't connect with me how the lights made window panes disappear. were the window panes missing before the flight? It doesn't seem like the window panes fell on anyone or nearby property.
"One shattered window pane was later recovered from the runway during a routine inspection."
It's likely the crew was using fresnel lights which are bright and very hot. You can easily burn yourself or set fire to delicate objects after prolonged use. Not impossible to imagine a crew member moving the lights, leaving them on and highly focused to imitate a distant light source; like a magnifying glass under the sun.
In the article it says the frames were melted by heat from the lights.
I imagine the film crew took out the windows so that they could shine the lights into the plane.