Kennedy grateful to pilot after plane scare
US Senator Edward M. Kennedy had almost reached his Hyannis home Saturday afternoon when his chartered jet was struck by lightning and lost all electrical power.
After reversing direction to avoid the bad weather, the pilot was able to dip beneath the clouds for improved visibility and steer the twin-engine jet to the Connecticut coast without the aid of navigation or communication systems.
Approximately an hour after the strike, the pilot, whom a Kennedy spokeswoman identified as Mel Acuff, landed the small aircraft safely at Tweed New Haven Regional Airport in Connecticut.
Melissa Wagoner, a Kennedy spokeswoman, said the senator was grateful to the pilot for his skill and poise under trying circumstances.
''He said the pilot did an extraordinary job," said Wagoner. ''Everything was totally manual."
Wagoner said Kennedy was not rattled by the incident.
The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the incident.
Kennedy is scheduled to attend the groundbreaking of the Chinatown park on the Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy Greenway, named after his mother, this morning in Boston.
Wagoner said Kennedy and a small crew were on board. Kennedy was flying to Hyannis from Pittsfield Municipal Airport after delivering a commencement address at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams.
The plane took off around 2:15 and was struck by lightning just after entering Hyannis airspace about a half hour later. The jet, which Kennedy had chartered and paid for through his campaign office, landed in New Haven shortly before 4 p.m., Wagoner said.
Kennedy spent Saturday night with his eldest son in Hartford and drove yesterday morning to Springfield, where he delivered the commencement address at Springfield College.
In 1964, Kennedy was seriously injured when his twin-engine private plane crashed in Western Massachusetts, killing the pilot and a Kennedy aide. Kennedy suffered broken ribs, three broken vertebrae, and other internal injuries.
Lightning frequently strikes planes, regardless of their size, but usually does not disable them, said John Goglia, a former board member of the National Transportation Safety Board and an aviation science professor at Saint Louis University. ''Airplanes are designed to [fly despite] electrical failures," he said.
Goglia said that flying a plane manually is challenging because of the reliance on computer navigation systems, but that once pilots are within sight of an airport, landing becomes relatively routine.
Still, ''the prudent thing is to get on the ground as quickly as possible," ideally at a low-traffic airport, he said.
Peter Schworm can be reached at schworm@globe.com 
