Lightning struck two planes in London as they landed at Heathrow Airport on Wednesday night, leaving passengers shook but not shocked.
“It came out of the blue. There was a really loud bang and white flash — not really what you want on a plane, Liz Dobson, 35, from Greenwich,
told the Evening Standard.
"It really did sound like something hit the plane. We could see the flash but it was on the opposite side of the plane to me. The lightning hit the wing."
Dobson was on Icelandair flight 454 from Keflavik, Iceland, with her husband Alexander Smith, 40, descending through the clouds and into the lightning storm around 8 p.m. when the lightning occurred.
One citizen filming the lightning storm claimed to have captured at least one of the strikes, and uploaded the footage to YouTube.
Student Phillippa Burns, 21, was on another flight, British Airways flight BA857 from Prague, that was stuck on Wednesday.
"It was a huge lightning bolt but I couldn’t tell where on the plane it hit," she said. "I’m not a very good flyer anyway and I think that started a mini panic attack. I just had to deal with it."
A British Airways representative did confirm that the flight was hit by lightning, but said such an occurrence wasn't uncommon.
"Flight BA857 landed safely, and will undergo inspection before it returns to service. The safety of our customers and crew is always our top priority," said the spokesman.
"Lightning strikes are fairly common, and aircraft are designed to cope with them."
Likewise, an Iceland air rep
told ABC News, "The lightning strike did not cause damage to the aircraft and the aircraft was returned to service after that inspection."