Narrative:

I was the upgrade lead on a flight that departs early [morning]. During the loading of the flight; there was lightning in the area and I [was] called in 3 or 4 times asking our ops agent if it was safe to be outside. He told me that the lightning detection was showing 'green' meaning it was safe to be outside. We finished loading the flight; I put the headset on to get ready to push the plane from the gate. I told the captain that I would prefer to use hand signals because I wasn't comfortable with the headset on with lightning in the air so close. He said that would be fine. He told me brakes were off and we were cleared to push. As soon as he said that; lightning struck very close by and I felt a jolt of electricity hit me in the jaw. It felt like someone punched me in the jaw. At that point; I threw the headset off and headed indoors. The ops agent told me that the lightning detector did not turn red (unsafe to be on the ramp) until the lightning struck right by us. Our company lightning detection needs to be replaced with something that actually works.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Ramp personnel headed indoors after lightning strike on the ramp just prior to pushback. One ramp agent was affected by the very close lightning strike. Reporter mentions the companies lightning detection indicator was still showing it safe to be outdoors.

Narrative: I was the upgrade lead on a flight that departs early [morning]. During the loading of the flight; there was lightning in the area and I [was] called in 3 or 4 times asking our ops agent if it was safe to be outside. He told me that the lightning detection was showing 'green' meaning it was safe to be outside. We finished loading the flight; I put the headset on to get ready to push the plane from the gate. I told the captain that I would prefer to use hand signals because I wasn't comfortable with the headset on with lightning in the air so close. He said that would be fine. He told me brakes were off and we were cleared to push. As soon as he said that; lightning struck very close by and I felt a jolt of electricity hit me in the jaw. It felt like someone punched me in the jaw. At that point; I threw the headset off and headed indoors. The ops agent told me that the lightning detector did not turn red (unsafe to be on the ramp) until the lightning struck right by us. Our company lightning detection needs to be replaced with something that actually works.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.