British Airways plane is struck by LIGHTNING on approach to Heathrow forcing urgent diversion

By Arthur Parashar 18:39 07 Jul 2024, updated 07:49 08 Jul 2024

• Were YOU on Flight BA919 from Stuttgart to Heathrow? Email matthew.lodge@mailonline.co.uk

A British Airways plane was struck by lightning on its approach to Heathrow Airport on Sunday afternoon.

Passengers onboard Flight BA919 from Stuttgart to Heathrow - some returning from Euro 2024 matches in Germany - told of their 'shock' after the dramatic incident which forced crews to divert to Gatwick.

The flight left Germany just after 1pm local time (12pm BST) and was due to land at Heathrow at 1.40pm. 

But the poor weather forced the pilots to divert to Gatwick, where passengers arrived at around 2pm before they were driven to Heathrow. 

One passenger, Jeco, told The Sun: 'The crew were amazing when our flight got struck by lightning on the approach to Heathrow. It was shocking. The flight had to divert to Gatwick.'

Another man, whose son and grandson were onboard, described it as the 'flight from hell' after passengers were delayed by over heated brakes in Stuttgart before being diverted in the UK due to lightning.

Passenger Robert Rossall, who was returning from a trip to Germany for the Euros, praised the response by the captain and his crew, telling MailOnline: 'The captain made a decision to land at the safer airport given the conditions and lightning strike. 

'Once on the tarmac he was informative and even walked the length of the plane to talk to all passengers. Cabin crew passed around bottled water and were calming. [It was] very professionally handled.'

A map showing the flight's route shows the plane travelling on a smooth course before suddenly circling and zigzagging away from Heathrow. 

A spokesman for British Airways said: 'BA919 diverted to Gatwick earlier this afternoon due to weather related conditions in the region.

'The flight landed just before 2pm. Customers were driven from Gatwick to Heathrow.'

Lighting strikes on flights are very common and are usually harmless. Experts suggest most planes are hit by lightning once or twice a year. 

Another passenger, who was on a different flight to London, also posted on X: 'Just got struck by lightning on the approach into Heathrow. 

'It entered just underneath the flight deck and left the tail - we saw it shoot through the cabin. 

'I'd heard of lighting travelling through the cabin before but it was my first time seeing it in real life.' 

And Daniel Bruce, who was flying from Dublin to Stansted after a heavy stag-do, also revealed his flight was struck by lightning.

He told MailOnline: 'Our flight from Dublin to Stansted was also hit! We saw the fork of lightning out the window and heard the bang on the side of the plane - woke a few of us up! Cabin crew looked a little bit concerned! 

'There were a lot of staff checking the plane over after we had a hell of a bumpy landing! Stag-do of 10 of us after a weekend of Guinness and watching the Euros, could've ended in disaster!'

It comes after a BA IT failure left dozens of passengers stranded on planes and facing hours of delays collecting their luggage at Heathrow last week.

The UK's busiest airport revealed passengers travelling from Terminal 5 were facing delays due to a failure in BA's Allocation systems, which no other airline was affected by. 

The glitch came a day after a ground vehicle caught on fire by a BA plane parked at Heathrow's Terminal 5.