A319 flight crew reported the onboard weather radar system failed during cruise flight when the aircraft experienced St. Elmo's fire and an electrical discharge. Flight diverted to alternate and landed safely.
Synopsis
A319 flight crew reported the onboard weather radar system failed during cruise flight when the aircraft experienced St. Elmo's fire and an electrical discharge. Flight diverted to alternate and landed safely.
Narrative
Flt xxx ZZZ-ZZZ1. Aircraft had inop wifi (hence no weather app). Two lines of extreme precipitation near ZZZ1. After consulting Dispatch we thought we would be able to arrive between the 2 lines of weather and Dispatch had already added over an hour of hold fuel in case we had to wait for the weather. About 200 miles from ZZZ1 we entered high cirrus. We were well north of any convective weather; but there was some stuff building in the area. The weather did not clear the field and we coordinated with Dispatch and ATC to hold at ZZZ on the arrival and added a second alternate of ZZZ2.We entered an area of static electricity (st Elmo's fire). We were still 60 miles north of the cbs. We had a very large static discharge out of the nose of the aircraft. The weather radar immediately failed with an r/t fault. Also the left engine N1 vibration indicator started showing high 5.0 vibration in pulsing green. This was distracting because everytime it went over 5.0 the engine page would override the lower ecam screen. This happened about every 10 seconds until descent.Since we were now effectively blind; we diverted to ZZZ3. We chose ZZZ3 because we knew there was very little convective activity to the north. I let ATC know that we needed help to navigate around any radar returns. I did not [request priority handling] for us but ATC did; most likely because they might need to give us traffic priority. The divert was uneventful.In ZZZ3 Dispatch told us we were going to take the aircraft coming in from ZZZ4 landing in 1:15 or so. Meanwhile I worked with Maintenance Control and the contract mechanic. The radar reset and they deferred the eng vibration gauge. At this point the company tried to give me the same aircraft to fly to ZZZ1. I refused the plane because of tstorms approaching ZZZ3 and more weather still near ZZZ1. I have over 9500hrs on the bus and have had static discharges before. I have never lost a system and I did not want to risk a duplicate of our first flight.We were given an aircraft that had been parked the whole time and prepared to leave. We waited 45 minutes for fuel after boarding. The truck ran out of gas. We departed at XA16z. We had an uneventful flight to ZZZ1 and blocked at XB32z.When we got to ZZZ1 the transportation was there for us but there was another Flight Attendant crew who had been waiting 2 hours. Our driver agreed to take them to a hotel near the airport and then take us downtown. We got to the hotel at approximately XC30L. We discovered that the hotel did not have a reservation for us. I talked to the manager and he showed me the original request sheet from the Company for the month. They had our flight number on many nights but our specific date was not on the sheet he showed me. On top of that the hotel was sold out. We walked to a [another hotel] where I self helped all of the rooms. We eventually got hold of the hotel desk after a long wait and they said that they took care of booking rooms.To sum up. I thought Dispatch and ATC were great. The staff at ZZZ3 did a good job up until the delay due to the fuel truck running out. I was frustrated with the decision to try to give us our original aircraft back. I told everyone I talked to that we were not taking that aircraft again; even if weather radar reset due to cbs. Instead of giving us the aircraft that we eventually flew; we spent 2hours 40 minutes at ZZZ3. It could have taken 1 hour. The issue with the hotel was icing on the cake.
Second reporter narrative
WiFi was inop from takeoff so we did not have the weather app or any other real time EFB info available. At cruise (FL340) we were coordinating with Dispatch via ACARS and ZZZ Center about how best to approach ZZZ1. ATC directed us to proceed direct to ZZZ and hold as published until thunderstorms pushed out of the terminal area. Our weather radar was on and operational on our way to ZZZ and the heavy precipitation was south of ZZZ; our course appeared safe. We began to experience St Elmos fire"; and light turbulence. As the St Elmos fire and turbulence worsened we requested right deviations and a climb to a higher altitude or a point further west/north to proceed to in an attempt to get out of those conditions. We were given direct to ZZZ1 an a climb to FL380. On our way there; we observed a bright discharge from the nose of the plane and our weather radar failed. We reported the lost of our radar to ATC and requested immediate vectors out of any weather. ATC vectored us to the north and we leveled off at FL360. While this was happening; the engine page began to appear because our number 1 engine vibrations would momentarily exceed 5.0 (maxing out at 5.5) and then clear as the vibes decreased below 5. The Captain and I agreed that it was unsafe to proceed to ZZZ1 given the convective weather in the area without an operable weather radar. We requested to deviate to our alternate of ZZZ3 and landed safely. ATC began asking us for our souls on board and remaining fuel despite us never actually declaring and emergency."
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Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.