As pointed out in [6], an aircraft will always assume the
electrical potential of its location. An aircraft being a large
conductor with surfaces are the same potential, it will divert
and compress adjacent equipotentials, thus increasing the
electric field intensity at its extremities. If an aircraft is far
away from the leader, its effect on the field near the leader is
negligible. When an aircraft is within several tens to hundreds
of meters from the leader, the increased field intensity in
between may be sufficient to attract subsequent leader
propagation toward the aircraft. As this happens, the
intervening field will become even more intense, and the
leader will advance more directly toward the aircraft.