After dramatic footage captured a BA plane being struck by lightning, pilots reveal how often bolts hit aircraft, what they do to them – and whether passengers should be worried…

By James On Jul 8, 2024

Dramatic footage captured a British Airways plane being struck by lightning while landing at Heathrow Airport on Sunday.

A passenger described the event as “shocking.”

But how worried should passengers be if their plane is struck by lightning?

Not at all concerned is the answer from the experts. Here veteran ex-pilot Terry Tozer, author of Confessions of an Airline Pilot – Why Planes CrashAir Canada Captain Doug Morris and James Moy, a flight instructor at Flight Sports Aviationreveal how often lightning strikes occur and what happens to an aircraft when it is struck by a bolt of lightning.

How often do lightning strikes occur on airplanes?

Dramatic footage captured the moment a British Airways plane was struck by lightning on approach to Heathrow Airport on Sunday

In his book This Is Your Captain Speaking, Doug Morris explains: ‘Statistics show that a passenger plane is hit [by lightning] every 5,000 hours, or about once a year. The FAA estimates that every airplane in the U.S. is hit once a year.’

What happens to an airplane when lightning strikes it?

Not much, Terry reveals, explaining: ‘A lightning strike can disrupt some of the instruments, but it’s usually not a serious problem because the aircraft is not grounded. You can have lightning strike one side and come out the other, and there can only be superficial damage.

‘I only experienced it once: there was a small hole in the nose cone and at the exit point in the tail a small piece of the tail fin support was burned out, so the aircraft had to be taken out of service.

‘It was fine for a temporary flight without passengers.

‘After a lightning strike, the aircraft will likely need to be checked to make sure all compasses and electronics are not confused.’

What do the pilots do if the plane is struck by lightning? Would they be aware of that?

In his book This Is Your Captain Speaking, Doug Morris (above) explains: ‘Statistics show that a passenger plane is hit [by lightning] every 5,000 hours, or about once a year. The FAA estimates that every plane in the U.S. is hit once a year’

Plane crashes caused by lightning strikes

A plane crash caused by lightning is a very rare event. The last plane crash directly attributable to lightning was probably in 1988.

Nuremberger Flugdienst Flight 108 – 1988

On February 8, 1988, all 21 people on board Nürnberger Flugdienst Flight 108 from Hannover to Düsseldorf were killed when the aircraft, a Swearingen Metroliner, was struck by lightning while approaching Düsseldorf Airport and broke up. An investigation concluded that the lightning strike had disrupted the aircraft’s electrical systems and that the pilots had subsequently become disoriented. The aircraft went into an unrecoverable spin and broke up after one of the flaps, without power, became stuck and subsequently failed.

Pan Am Flight 214 – 1963

On December 8, 1963, a lightning strike ignited the fuel in one of the tanks of Pan Am Flight 214, a Boeing 707, causing the plane to explode while flying between Baltimore and Philadelphia. All 81 people on board were killed.

Terry said, “Probably, but it depends on what’s happening. You could be flying up into the clouds and see a bright flash, but you wouldn’t necessarily know it hit you unless there was some other indication, like instruments behaving strangely or something.”

James noted, “The lightning strike may cause temporary disruption to communications or navigation systems, but modern aircraft are equipped to withstand and dissipate the energy from a lightning strike. Aircraft systems are designed to continue to operate normally after a lightning strike.”

Terry added: ‘

Can pilots predict a lightning strike?

Terry said: ‘Normally on a modern aircraft, like the last regional aircraft I flew, in addition to weather radar there is also lightning detection equipment.

‘Lightning normally comes from cumulonimbus thunderclouds and normally shows up on radar.

“There are occasional ‘dry storms’. If they are not moist enough to show up on the radar, they can catch you by surprise.

“But if you have lightning detectors, they can usually show you where the lightning is.”

What can passengers experience?

Terry said: ‘There are dramatic stories of lightning bolts flying from one side of the hut to the other, which must have scared the living daylights out of everyone.

“But it probably won’t have drastic consequences.”

Should passengers be concerned?

Terry said, ‘Not really. Your job at the end is risk management, so getting struck by lightning is not an ideal situation, so of course you would try to avoid it.

‘It would probably be even worse if you got into heavy hail, because that could actually do physical damage to the aircraft.

“We’ve seen nose cones shattered and windows damaged. But hail should show up on your weather radar.

‘The weather is both intense and unpredictable and you can never completely eliminate all risks.

“But generally speaking, lightning is something that most modern aircraft can deal with.”

James agreed: ‘The pilot can communicate with passengers and reassure them and give updates if necessary, but generally there is no need to panic. Passengers should have confidence that the aircraft can withstand lightning strikes.’

Terry added that lightning strikes are usually nothing more than “a bloody annoyance… because if the plane gets hit and the compasses have to be reset and then the plane is out of service, then the whole planning gets thrown out of whack… it’s not going to destroy any major structures or anything like that.”

Former pilot Terry Tozer, author of Confessions of an Airline Pilot – Why Planes Crash, told MailOnline that lightning is usually nothing more than a ‘nuisance’