Asiana Airlines flight OZ-551 made a safe emergency landing at Istanbul Atatürk Airport, Istanbul, Turkey, on August 13.
The Airbus A330-300 flying from Seoul, South Korea, was about to reach when it received a lightning strike.
The plane landed safely.
No one was injured.
Delta Airlines flight DL-1889 had to divert and make an emergency landing at Denver International Airport, Denver, Colorado, on August 7th.
The Airbus A320-200 en-route from Boston, Massachusetts, to Salt Lake City, Utah, was mid-air when it encountered severe turbulence due to hail and lightning.
The plane received damage to its radome, windshields and engines.
All 119 passengers and 5 crew members onboard remained unhurt.
Air New Zealand flight NZ-410 made an emergency landing in Auckland, New Zealand, on July 14th.
The plane flying from Wellington, New Zealand declared an emergency after it was struck by lightning.
The plane continued for a safe landing. All passengers and crew members remained unhurt.
Norwegian International Airlines flight D8-5620 made a safe landing at Helsinki-Vantaa Airport, Helsinki, Finland, on April 23rd.
The Boeing 737-800, flying from Barcelona, Spain, to Helsinki, was on approach to runway when it was struck by lightning.
The plane landed safely. All people onboard remained unharmed.
Norwegian Airlines flight DY-414 made an emergency landing in Oslo, Norway, on April 22nd.
The plane took off for Aalesund, Norway, but had to turn back after it was hit by lightning.
The plane landed safely. Everyone aboard remained unharmed.
KLM flight KL-435 continued for a safe landing at Bahrain International Airport, Bahrain, on April 14th.
The Airbus A330-200, flying from Doha, Qatar, was mid-air when it was struck by lightning, but the crew continued to Bahrain.
The plane landed safely.
All 124 people onboard remained unharmed.
Finnair flight AY-165 had to return and make an emergency landing in Helsinki, Finland, on April 8th.
The plane took off for to Saint Petersburg, Russia, but had to turn back after a lightning strike caused some electrical problems.
The plane landed uneventfully. Everyone aboard remained safe.
A Lufthansa Cityline plane was struck by lightning while it was descending towards Sibiu, Romania, on April 7th.
The Canadair CRJ-900 was flying from Munich, Germany, when a lightning strike caused a crack in its windshield.
The plane landed safely. No injuries were reported.
The return flight was cancelled.
American Airlines flight AA-4233 had to divert and make an emergency landing at John. F. Kennedy Airport, New York, on March 17.
The Embraer ERJ-175, en-route from Raleigh, North Carolina to La Guardia Airport, NY was struck by lightning, due to which the crew diverted for a safe landing.
The plane landed safely.
All 55 passengers and 4 crew members onboard remained unhurt.
China Eastern Airlines flight MU-5414 had to return and make an emergency landing in Chengdu, Sichuan province of China, on February 21st.
The Airbus A321-200 took off for Shanghai Pudong International Airport, China, but had to return shortly afterwards after the crew reported a lightning strike.
The plane landed safely. No injuries were reported.
The airline arranged a replacement plane for the passengers.
Delta Airlines flight DL-1832 made an emergency landing in Phoenix, Arizona, on January 31.
The plane was flying from Atlanta, Georgia, when lightning struck it, prompting the pilot to declare an emergency.
The plane landed uneventfully. Everyone aboard remained safe.
American Airlines flight AA904 had to divert and make an emergency landing in Brasillia, Brazil, on January 29.
The plane, heading from Rio de Janeiro to Miami, Florida, was diverted after four people, including a passengers and three crew members, complained of lightheadedness.
The plane landed uneventfully. The airline said the sick passenger and crew members were examined by paramedics but none of them requested further medical care.
Singapore Airlines flight SQ-107 made a safe landing at Changi Airport, Singapore, on November 24.
The Airbus A330-300, en-route from Kuala Lampur, Malaysia to Singapore, was struck by lightning shortly before landing.
The plane landed safely.
All passengers aboard remained unharmed.
A British Airways flight BA-760 made a safe landing at Bergen Airport, Bergen, Norway, on November 13.
The Airbus A319-100, en-route from London to Bergen, was struck by lightning shortly before landing.
All passengers aboard remained unharmed.
A KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight KL-1201 made a safe landing at Stavanger Airport, Stavanger, Norway, on November 13.
The Fokker 70, en-route from Amsterdam, Netherlands to Stavanger, was struck by lightning shortly before landing.
All passengers aboard remained unharmed.
An Alaska Airlines Flight 006 returned to Los Angeles International Airport, California, on the afternoon of July 18.
The Boeing 737, heading towards Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Virginia, had to return for an emergency landing after it was hit by lightning.
The plane landed uneventfully.
All 159 passengers aboard remained unhurt.
A plane, carrying members of the Karmanos family, had to make an emergency landing at Oakland County International Airport, Michigan, on June 14.
The owner of NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes, Peter Karmanos Jr., his wife Danialle Karmanos and their four sons were heading from Detroit to New York when lightning struck their plane, causing an electric fire on-board.
The plane made a safe emergency landing and everyone aboard remained unharmed.
Garuda flight GA 698 had to make an emergency landing at Frans Kaisiepo Airport in Biak, Papua, Indonesia, on January 26.
The flight, heading from Manokwari to Sentani Airport, Jayapura, had to declare emergency after one of its wings got damaged.
According to the Head of Sentani Airport, Herson, the technicians in Biak found black smoke coming from the left wing of the plane. He added, “It is suspected that the flight was struck by lightning.”
Some passenger reported that the flight was postponed till Tuesday.
Blue Islands flight SI718 had to divert and make an emergency landing at London Southend Airport in Essex, United Kingdom, at around 6:37 p.m. on January 13.
The flight, heading from Jersey to London City, was diverted after it was struck by lightning.
The ATR42 aircraft, carrying 30 passengers, landed uneventfully. None of the passengers and crew members was hurt.
Airline authorities said the aircraft was taken for inspection while the return flight to Jersey was cancelled.
An Alitalia flight from Ancona had to make an emergency landing at Fiumicino airport in Rome, Italy, on November 5.
The incident happened after the right engine of the ATR 72 twin turboprop aircraft was struck by lightning while passing through a severe storm.
The plane landed uneventfully and all 51 passengers and crew members remained unharmed.
The aircraft was taken for examination.
United Airlines flight UA5 had to return and make an emergency landing at London Heathrow Airport, UK, at around 3 p.m. on October 10.
The Boeing 787, en-route to Houston, Texas, was returned after it got struck by lightning midair.
The plane landed uneventfully and none of the 130 passengers was hurt.
United Airlines said that the aircraft was taken for examination.
A CF-18 was struck by lightning about 50 miles away from Whitecourt, Alberta, on July 24.
The pilot, Capt. Adam Runge, was flying to Whitecourt for participating in the Hometown Heroes Airshow. He was about 50 miles short of his final destination when his aircraft was struck by lightning.
However, Runge managed to safely land at Whitecourt airport. No damage to the aircraft or pilot has been reported.
“A clearly defined bolt stretched from the clouds towards the aircraft…It was probably just a split second, we’re talking not even half a second I’m guessing, that it hit the aircraft around the cockpit area…It was just a short tingle,” said Runge.
The manager of Whitecourt airport, William Stewart said “He [the pilot] said the electronics did a flash on him and he had a tingling sensation during the strike, but after that, everything seemed to function as it was supposed to.”
Maintenance, maintenance, maintenance. I’ve said this too many times to count.
Here’s a question: The event below was a maintenance ferry flight. Every time I hear about a post maintenance ferry flight that crashed, I wonder how that maintenance was performed, and what they forgot to do. Maybe they performed maintenance perfectly—I don’t know. It’s just what strikes my mind when that ferry flight goes down. What did that maintenance crew miss? It’s too much like having a brake failure accident while bringing the family car home from the brake shop. But this accident was PRE-inspection. So maybe it is like having the brakes fail on the way to the brake shop…
On January 19, 2014, at 12:20 , a PT. Intan Angkasa Piper PA-31-350 Navajo Chieftain, PK-IWT, flying from from Sentani to Tual crashed on approach to Dumatubun Airport, Maluku, Indonesia. The pilot and three passengers were fatally injured and the airplane was destroyed.
Some reports say it was hit by lightning, but most planes are designed not to catch fire when struck by lightning; careful lightning protection has been engineered into the aircraft. The current tends to travel through the conductive aluminum exterior skin and off an extremity like a wing tip. Additional shielding protects components from haywire side effects called “lightning indirect effects” and bursting into flames is not one of those effects, except in the fuel system, where even a spark is lethal.
So, again, I question maintenance, and the integrity of the fuel system. Was the aluminum skin around the fuel system thick enough to withstand a lighting strike?
Or perhaps it was something else entirely. The flight was described as being pounded by rain and fierce winds (they had just refueled in a thunderstorm)…and the wing fell off before the plane crashed. So was it the gale force winds that caused the wing to come off? Inquiring minds want to know. As always, the investigation is key to finding out why the wing came off and the plane crashed.
Those aboard were a pilot, a technician and two airline employees.
On January 25, 2013, a Turkish Airlines Airbus A321-231 with 114 aboard en route from Istanbul-Atatürk was on approach to Izmir Turkey when the plane is reported to have suffered an engine fire in the right engine.
A report is circulating that the plane was struck by lightning.
Many of the passengers were reported to be in a panic, saying the plane was vibrating the whole flight, describe the loud noise of the strike, and also the smell of burning
The pilot made a safe landing on one engine.
Video below
Not sure what to think of the music added to the video below, which makes it most un-news-like. There’s no actual video of the plane landing, just a light making a line in the sky.
What: Scandinavian Airlines Boeing 737-683 en route from Stockholm to Umeå
Where: Sweden
When: August 26, 2012
Who: 120 passengers, 5 crew
Why: After take-off, the plane was hit by lightning.
Pilots returned to the airport and made a safe landing. Passengers transferred to another plane, while the original was inspected.
