A passenger on a plane struck by lightning on Friday evening has described hearing an almighty bang, and says it was a terrifying experience.
Air New Zealand said NZ625 from Auckland to Queenstown was turned back for engineering checks as a precaution after lightning hit the plane shortly after departure.
A woman on board, who did not want to be named, told RNZ the flight got off to a rough start.
“It was actually one of the bumpiest departures I’ve had, and then there was a loud bang, very loud,” she said.
“Everyone just went quite quiet, well there was a lot of … ‘ooh, ooh, what was that?’
“Just sort of sitting there in shock, and listening to see if there were any unusual noises of the engines, so it was … a very nerve-wracking experience.”
About 15 minutes later, the pilot told passengers he had some bad news, she said.
“That we’d been struck by lightning and … they were waiting for the engineers to give them instructions,” she said.
The flight was turned back to Auckland and landed within half an hour, she said.
Air New Zealand rebooked the woman on a Saturday morning flight, but she decided to cancel her weekend away.
Southland MP Joseph Mooney said he was also on board, and posted on Facebook that the lightning strike was “quite the way to round out an eventful week”.
It made “quite a bang both audibly and visually,” he said.
Mooney hoped to return home on Saturday, with weather deteriorating in the south.
The airline said lightning strike was “not uncommon”.
“Our pilots and crew are trained for this scenario,” said chief pilot Captain David Morgan.
“As a precautionary measure, the decision was made to return to Auckland to allow for a full engineering inspection.
“This is standard procedure in such circumstances.”
Teams were booking passengers on the next available service, he said.
rnz.co.nz
