Navy pilot’s fighter jet struck by lightning

Getting struck by lightning is never good, but it’s even scarier 23,000 feet in the air.
“It was a sketchy weather day,” said U.S. Navy Lt. Cliff Lemoine as he recalled July 18, 2014. “There were pop up thunderstorms in the area, and we were flying fingertip, three feet apart. We saw rain, then it looked like it was about to hail.”
“The next thing I saw was a flash of light, then I felt static, shock on my face, behind my mask. I looked over at Chili (Cmdr. Abaxes Williams) and said, ‘I think we were just struck by lightning.’”
Lemoine, a native of Eunice, and Williams were practicing Strike Fighter Weapons and Tactics Offensive Basic Fighter Maneuvers on that summer day in Warning Area 453, air space in the Gulf of Mexico Range Complex east of the Chandeleur Islands. The area, reserved for aerial combat training, is often used by F/A-18 Hornet pilots from the Naval Air Station-Joint Reserve Base in Belle Chasse.
That day, Williams was flying lead, and Lemoine was flying as wingman. Lemoine quickly radioed Williams after the flash of light, asking him if he was OK.
“He told me to get away from him,” Lemoine said. “I dropped back and tried to talk to him. He was talking slowly, like he was not all there, not very responsive. I moved back near him to check his plane to make sure nothing was wrong with it. Everything looked okay during the check over.”
Concerned that Williams might have been suffering from hypoxia, Lemoine asked his fellow pilot if he wanted him to take over as lead, and when Williams responded in the affirmative, Lemoine turned them away from the storms and lowered their altitude from 23,000 feet to 10,000 feet. Lemoine also radioed the base’s duty desk and was read through for emergency procedures for physiological episodes.
“Chili asked me if I felt the shock ‘like really felt it.’” Lemoine said. “He said he felt it in his whole body. He said he felt like he had just woke up. That’s not good. Losing consciousness is not a good thing in aviation. It’s a big deal.”
“He seemed fine but he was talking slow and slumped a bit in the cockpit.”
Twenty-five minutes after the lightning strike, Lemoine shadowed Williams as he attempted to land at the base, but Williams overshot the trap, a mechanism that captures a jet’s tail hook, and took back to the sky.
“He radioed and said, ‘This is hard,’” Lemoine said. “I watched the degradation of his cognitive ability (during the flight back).”
Williams’ second attempt to land was successful, and emergency personnel were waiting for the pilot when he landed. Meanwhile, Lemoine continued to fly until the runway was cleared.
“He slumped over the top of the cockpit after he landed,” Lemoine said. “When they got him to the ambulance, he asked if he had landed or if he had crashed.”
Williams was transported to a local hospital and treated in the facility’s hyperbaric chamber, and Lemoine was also treated and released from the hospital following the incident. As a medical precaution, Lemoine was grounded for week, and Williams was allowed back in the air after a month.
Lemoine received the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for his actions that day, and Williams received the Navy Air Medal.
Lemoine is a 2001 graduate of St. Edmund and he attended LSU Eunice before transferring to Tulane. He is the son of the late Clifton Lemoine and late Linda Lemoine. His stepmother, Eula Lemoine, resides in L’Anse Meg. Lemoine served in the Air Force from 2005-2012 and has been in the Navy for the last three years.