Incident at THUNDER BAY, ONTARIO (Aerodrome - power failure, ATM - NAVAIDS/radar)

1998-01-22: The Thunder Bay tower cap suffered a lightning strike which caused the following damage: 1. Loss of commercial hydro power (diesel back up available). 2. Loss of tower radar. 3. Loss of OIDS equipment. (Wind read out, etc.) 4. Loss of air field lighting. 5. Loss of outside phone lines. 6. Top two feet of one radio antenna was blown away. 7. Possible structural damage to roof of tower, the extent of which is yet to be determined. 8. Loss of NFDPS link. Winnipeg ACC experienced the following problems: 1. Loss of 2 main frequencies based in Thunder Bay. 2. Loss of back-up radar line feed. Thunder Bay tower did not lose their main frequencies and so were able to keep operations going. There were no reported injuries to any tower personnel. Due to the loss of the main frequencies based in Thunder Bay and the backup radar line, Winnipeg ACC initiated flow control with Toronto ACC and Thunder Bay tower as well as internally. These restrictions consisted of: 1. Enroute: Aircraft to be 20 miles in trail at same altitude and no wrong way altitudes accepted. 2. Departures: 10 minutes between departures at Thunder Bay. As of 2300Z, Thunder Bay has restored most of their losses with the exception of the NFDPS link, FSS hotlines, and some ATC interphone lines.