VIDEO of Wizz Air’s Budapest flight being struck by lightning
One of the passengers filmed from inside the plane as lightning struck a Wizz Air flight from Budapest to London on Saturday morning.
Wizz Air plane struck by lightning
Wizz Air flight W62201 from Budapest to London was struck by lightning on the morning of 22 June, rtl.hu reports.
The incident was reported by a passenger in the public Facebook group “Légiközlekedés – Repülés – PlaneSpotting“. The Airbus A321-271NX on Wizz Air flight W62201 and its occupants were unharmed, the passenger wrote in a comment.
The interesting thing is that there was only light and a small sound effect, the plane continued its journey undisturbed. In front of us, a passenger was snorting the whole flight, not even alerted. So it was a little bump, nothing more!
The passenger was filming the dense thunderstorm cloud in which the plane was travelling and was lucky enough to catch the moment of the lightning strike. According to rtl.hu, footage showing what it’s like to be struck by lightning from inside the cabin of a passenger jet is rare.
@zsom3ditz1
The lightning is believed to have struck the nose of the plane, and some of the massive electrical charge was discharged on the wings. The slow-motion version of the video shows the lightning passing through several points on the right wing:
Is lightning dangerous for those travelling on the plane?
Zsolt Szüle, an instructor pilot, told Index that the body of the plane is protected by a layer of aluminium on the outside, which remains intact in the event of a lightning strike.
According to rtl.hu, the fuselage, made partly from aluminium and other similarly conductive metal alloys, acts as a lightning rod, conducting the electrical charge in such a way that the passengers remain unharmed.
The aircraft’s sensitive instruments and equipment are protected against surges, so they are not damaged in the tenth of a second it takes for lightning to pass through the fuselage. This is why, despite statistics showing that the average passenger or cargo plane is struck by lightning once or twice a year, there are no reports of any air incidents because of it.
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