In an incredible moment, a plane heading for London’s Heathrow airport was struck by three forks of lightning . The footage shows an aircraft flying over central London over the weekend through a stormy sky.
The video was recorded on June 6.
The lightning appears to come from different directions and converge to hit the plane. Roars of thunder erupt in the air and rumble across the sky after the lightning hits the plane.
A witness standing in their flat on Wapping High Street said: ‘What a moment to get the camera out.
When I watched it back I thought ‘Oh my God it’s hit the plane. Flipping heck’.
One person on Twitter, Andrew McCluckie, said: ‘Would not like to have been on that plane approaching Heathrow that just got hit by lightning.
Commercial aircraft around the world are bombarded with bolts of lightning every single day.
It is thought that on average each plane is struck at least once every two years.
The fuselage of most planes is made of conductive aluminium. Travelling through storm clouds, where huge amounts of static electricity can gather, can actually trigger the discharges.
But all passenger planes are built with electrical shielding which protects the inside of the plane from the effects of lightning bolts.
