Narrative:

[We] experienced a lightning strike during arrival which resulted in aircraft damage. The flight was a part 91 repositioning flight to pick up passengers. Preflight planning showed some areas of fast moving thunderstorm activity with sufficient spacing between the areas for passage. The flight was uneventful until entering [a new ARTCC] airspace when we received several reroutes to avoid convective activity. The last assigned routing had us paralleling the shoreline southbound to avoid a line of scattered cells over the shoreline. Nexrad showed only rain (green) behind the ts line and ZZZ was reporting VFR conditions. As we approached ZZZ VOR at 11;000 we were in IMC conditions. We circumnavigated a cell using onboard radar. Onboard radar did not show any cells ahead. Inflight visibility started to improve with some clouds and haze in between. We initiated a descent to 8;000 as instructed by ATC. As we passed through approximately 10;000 a lightning strike hit the aircraft. Both pfd's showed a heading fail warning message which disappeared after 3-4 seconds. The sic stated that she felt the strike hit the plane. A check of avionics and aircraft system indications did not show any abnormalities. A visual inspection of the aircraft's [exterior] from the cockpit looked normal. We broke out into clear VFR conditions a few seconds later. We completed the flight with an uneventful visual approach and landing.during the post flight inspection; the crew noted the following external damage to the aircraft:1) the trailing edge of one propeller blade was frayed along a 3 inch line.2) the lower rear rudder had a 2 inch diameter burn mark which exposed the composite material underneath.3) the left inboard flap actuator fairing had a 2 inch diameter skin burn mark aft.4) the left winglet had a 2 inch diameter burn mark at the tip and the static wick was missing.the aircraft was grounded and a discrepancy was entered in the logbook in coordination with maintenance control.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: PC-12 flight crew reported they incurred some damage from an inflight lightning strike.

Narrative: [We] experienced a lightning strike during arrival which resulted in aircraft damage. The flight was a Part 91 repositioning flight to pick up passengers. Preflight planning showed some areas of fast moving thunderstorm activity with sufficient spacing between the areas for passage. The flight was uneventful until entering [a new ARTCC] airspace when we received several reroutes to avoid convective activity. The last assigned routing had us paralleling the shoreline southbound to avoid a line of scattered cells over the shoreline. NEXRAD showed only rain (green) behind the TS line and ZZZ was reporting VFR conditions. As we approached ZZZ VOR at 11;000 we were in IMC conditions. We circumnavigated a cell using onboard radar. Onboard radar did not show any cells ahead. Inflight visibility started to improve with some clouds and haze in between. We initiated a descent to 8;000 as instructed by ATC. As we passed through approximately 10;000 a lightning strike hit the aircraft. Both PFD's showed a HDG FAIL warning message which disappeared after 3-4 seconds. The SIC stated that she felt the strike hit the plane. A check of avionics and aircraft system indications did not show any abnormalities. A visual inspection of the aircraft's [exterior] from the cockpit looked normal. We broke out into clear VFR conditions a few seconds later. We completed the flight with an uneventful visual approach and landing.During the post flight inspection; the crew noted the following external damage to the aircraft:1) The trailing edge of one propeller blade was frayed along a 3 inch line.2) The lower rear rudder had a 2 inch diameter burn mark which exposed the composite material underneath.3) The left inboard flap actuator fairing had a 2 inch diameter skin burn mark aft.4) The left winglet had a 2 inch diameter burn mark at the tip and the static wick was missing.The aircraft was grounded and a discrepancy was entered in the logbook in coordination with maintenance control.

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.