Flights viewed from the ground are rarely much to look at the plane flies through the sky. But a motorist in Alaska, USA got a shock when he spotted an aircraft being struck by a massive bolt of lightning as it flew over the road. The dashcam footage of the incident is now rapidly going viral after being shared by driver Corey Crow. The dramatic clip shows Crow driving off from a set of traffic lights in the town of Anchorage.
Up ahead in the distance, a plane can be seen flying across the heavily clouded sky.
As it moves, an enormous bolt of lightning snakes across the sky in sensational scenes.
The forked lightning – the flash of which fills the sky – appears to directly strike the plane.
As the lightning fades, a small flash can still be seen off the tail end of the aircraft.
Crow told Stuff.co.nz of the incident: “Lightning storms are rare in Anchorage to begin with. I had seen the lightning and hit record on my dashcam.
“When I got home I had looked at the footage and it was then I saw the plane crossed paths with the lightning. Looking closer at the clip I noticed the lightning had struck the plane.”
Planes being struck by lightning are a fear of many passengers but aircraft are in fact built to sustain such a hit.
“Planes are hit by lightning more frequently than you might expect – an individual jetliner is struck about once every two years, on average – and are designed accordingly,” explained pilot Patrick Smith in his book, Cockpit Confidential.
“The energy does not travel through the cabin, electrocuting the passengers, it is discharged overboard through the plane’s aluminium skin, which is an excellent electrical conductor.
“Composite aircraft are built with a copper mesh beneath the paint layer that acts in the same way.
“Once in a while there’s exterior damage – a superficial entry or exit wound – or minor injury to the plane’s electrical systems, but a strike typically leaves little or no evidence.”
Lightning strikes are still likely to be noticed but those on board, however. Smith recalls a “dull flash and a thud,” during one strike while he was flying.
Earlier this month a plane crash was partially blamed on lightning hitting the aircraft.
Aeroflight Flight 593 burst into flames at Moscow Airport, Russia on Sunday killing 41 people after electric failure.
Passengers and crew who survived the Aeroflot jet tragedy have claimed it was hit by lightning moments before it crashed.
There were unconfirmed claims people retrieving their bags from overhead compartments led to a delay in evacuating the aircraft.
