Passengers on a British Airways flight from Stuttgart, Germany described it as a “flight from hell” after the plane was struck by lightning.
The flight was descending into Heathrow Airport on Monday afternoon and the tip of the wing was hit by lightning.
The British Airways Flight 919 had to divert to Gatwick and then passengers were driven to Heathrow Airport some 25-miles away.
A social media post reported that horrified passengers saw a bolt of lightning shoot through the cabin.
#shocking flight from @British_Airways today*
*this is a joke, the crew were amazing when our flight got struck by lightning on the approach to Heathrow and had to divert to Gatwick. Amazingly, someone caught it on video! pic.twitter.com/YERuZ4JYeg
— Kico (@mrs_jebu) July 7, 2024
The passenger called Ben wrote on social media, “Just got struck by lightning on the approach into Heathrow,” he posted on social media.
“It entered just underneath the flight deck and left the tail – we saw it shoot through the cabin.
“I’ve heard of lightning travelling through the cabin before, but it was my first time seeing it in real life.”
Robert Rossall who was travelling home after watching the Euros told the MailOnline, “The captain made a decision to land at the safer airport given the conditions and lightning strike.
“Once on the tarmac he was informative and even walked the length of the plane to talk to all passengers. Cabin crew passed around bottled water and were calming. [It was] very professionally handled.”
A spokesman for British Airways said: “BA919 diverted to Gatwick earlier this afternoon due to weather related conditions in the region.
“The flight landed just before 2pm. Customers were driven from Gatwick to Heathrow.
“We’re sorry for the inconvenience to our customers’ travel plans.”
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