Widebody Transport
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Total 7500
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Aircraft Aircraft Damaged; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action; General Maintenance Action
Weather
As IRO during arrival in to ZBAA; with ATIS reporting no significant weather; we saw some weather activity on radar and requested vector to another arrival to completely avoid the weather. We continued descent in the clear on our vector and setup the new arrival in the FMC. During this descent while in clear we were struck by lightning indicated by blinding flash on our right side and loud thunder clap. The EICAS indicated ZERO issues. We immediately checked the aircraft STATUS and aircraft SYSTEMS pages and saw no indications of any malfunctions. I called dispatch on SATCOM and reported the lightning strike. I asked dispatch to contact Maintenance Control to and ask if they were observing anything unusual on our aircraft systems data downlink. They reported nothing unusual/abnormal was being shown. I asked dispatch to report the lighting strike to ZBAA maintenance which they acknowledged. We saw nothing further on aircraft systems during arrival; approach and landing. I performed a post-flight inspection in the darkness and rain and despite my VERY bright LED flashlight; could not see any damage. The rain was running down my eye glasses which sure didn't help my personal visibility. I located one of our Chinese 'Engineers' who was inspecting the nose gear and reported the lightning strike; pointing to the right side of the aircraft. He said he would investigate/inspect. The Captain entered the lightning strike in the aircraft maintenance logbook.
Picked up ATIS prior to descent into ZBAA. No significant weather was being reported. On descent we observed some local weather on our planned arrival so we asked to deviate to the north of the field to avoid it. We asked and were given a different arrival to keep us out of the weather. This would take us out about 40 additional miles from our planned arrival but keep us well away from the weather that we were concerned about. As we were descending in the clear we all saw a bright flash and heard a loud boom. This was the first lightning event that we viewed during our descent. This was heard throughout the cabin as well. No system malfunctions were evident. I made a PA reassuring passengers and had my IRO call Dispatch to notify them and have maintenance 'ping' the aircraft for any possible system problems. We landed in ZBAA and the IRO went out and found no visible damage. (Was light rain and night conditions.) We also notified personnel meeting aircraft; and I put into logbook 'Suspect Lightning Strike.' Next morning I was contacted by outbound crew that indeed maintenance had found that there was damage to the right side of the aircraft from what appeared to be a lightning strike.
Air carrier flight crew experienced a lightning strike during descent into ZBAA. No anomalies were noted in flight; but maintenance did find evidence of strike on the right side during post flight inspection.