A British Airways flight was struck by lightning in a terrifying incident on Sunday afternoon just as the plane was preparing to land at Heathrow Airport, forcing the aircraft to divert to a different airport. The Sun first reported the news.
Amidst a summer storm, flight BA919 from Stuttgart, Germany to London was struck by lightning shortly before its planned 1:40 p.m. landing. Due to the fearsome weather, the aircraft was diverted to nearby Gatwick Airport where it landed without incident.
“The crew were amazing when our flight got struck by lightning,” a passenger named Jeco told the outlet. “It was shocking,” they marveled.
One passenger managed to catch the lightning hit in a photo, while another recorded the astonishing moment.
*PLEASE SHARE* Were you on the Stuttgart plane that got diverted from Heathrow to Gatwick and took the video? I took a shoddy photo of it and I've got the Mail, the telegraph and sky news wanting it in my DMs!! Message me and I'll put you in touch! #lightning #heathrow pic.twitter.com/qIoF8IW609
— Kico (@mrs_jebu) July 8, 2024
"BA919 diverted to Gatwick earlier this afternoon due to weather-related conditions in the region,” British Airways confirmed in a statement.
After landing at Gatwick and retrieving their luggage, passengers needing to make connections were shuttled an hour down the highway back to Heathrow.
Despite the inconveniences, passengers had nothing but praise for the flight crew. “The captain made a decision to land at the safer airport given the conditions and lightning strike,” Robert Rossall explained. “Once on the tarmac, he was informative and even walked the length of the plane to talk to all passengers. [The] cabin crew passed around bottled water and were calming. [It was] very professionally handled.”
Lightning bolts striking aircraft is a fairly common occurrence, though it rarely results in injury because planes act as conductors. “Statistics show an airliner gets hit [by lightning] every 5,000 hours, or about once a year,” Doug Morris, a captain who has amassed more than 26,000 flying hours, wrote in his book, This Is Your Captain Speaking. “The FAA estimates every airliner in the U.S will be struck once a year.”
“A lightning strike can upset some of the instruments,” explained fellow pilot and author Terry Tozer, “but it's not usually a really serious issue because the aircraft isn't earthed. You can have lightning going in one end and out the other and there might only be superficial damage.”
