St. Elmo's fire..??

Yes, sand sparks. I'm glad someone got a picture of this because I had to investigate an F-16 crash right on the border of Saudi/Iraq a few days before the first Gulf War started. They flew me up in a Blackhawk and as we were landing that's exactly what I saw. I thought we were going down. Looked like a glowing halo above us. I think the leading edges of the rotor blades are titanium and the sand that gets kicked up makes sparks when striking the b lades.

For the record, ball-lightning is apparently different from St Elmo's fire...I have learned.


# In January 1984, ball lightning measuring about 4 inches in diameter entered a Russian passenger aircraft and, according to the Russian news release, “flew above the heads of the stunned passengers. In the tail section of the airliner, it divided into two glowing crescents which then joined together again and left the plane almost noiselessly.” The ball lightning left two holes in the plane.
# A “ball of sparks” about the size of a basketball entered a commercial aircraft, apparently through an engine airtake, moved into the fuselage, and proceeded to chase a flight attendant up and down the aisle. She was screaming as she tried to outrun the ball lightning. It dissipated quickly before striking her.

http://www.mendhak.com/82-ball-lightning.aspx

Speaking of ball lightning that reminds me of something I hadn't thought about in many years. When I was a kid (I think around 8 or 10 years old) I remember there was a thunderstorm in the area. I don't remember exactly what prompted my dad to go outside and look up on the roof of the house, I think we were having TV reception problem and he went out to check the antenna, but he came back in the house and looked pretty freaked out like he had seen a ghost. He said he saw something about the size of a basketball that was glowing and floated smoothly over the roof of the house. After digging into it a bit someone mentioned "ball lightning" and he said the description of ball lightning sounds exactly like what he saw. I wish I saw this while I was home for thanksgiving, I would have liked to bring that up and see what he remembers about it.