British Airways plane struck by lightning near Heathrow airport

An ‘electrifying’ British Airways flight

Passengers on board a British Airways flight on Sunday, 7 July, were given quite a ‘shock’ when the plane was struck by lightning.

As per Daily Mail, the plane was struck by lightning on its approach to Heathrow Airport on Sunday afternoon and quickly had to be diverted to Gatwick Airport instead.

Flight BA919 from Stuttgart to Heathrow departed Germany just after 13:00 local time and was due to land at Heathrow at 13.40.

But lightning struck and forced the pilots to divert to Gatwick, where passengers arrived at around 14:00 before they were driven back to Heathrow. 

The flight’s route, as seen on a map, showed the plane travelling on a smooth course before suddenly circling and moving away from Heathrow.

A spokesman for British Airways said that the flight had 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.” the spokesperson said as per Daily Mail.

When lightning strikes

Although it might’ve been a ‘shocking’ experience all round, lightning strikes on aircraft are relatively common.

Commercial aircraft get struck by lightning approximately once every 1,000 flight hours, which translates to about once per year per aircraft.

Modern aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes with minimal risk to the safety of passengers and crew, as they are equipped with advanced lightning protection systems that include conductive materials like aluminum and composite materials that are designed to allow the lightning current to flow through the aircraft’s outer skin, minimizing damage.