Dramatic moment a plane is struck in mid-air by lightning THREE times

This is the dramatic moment a mum captured a plane on camera as it was struck by lightning THREE times.

Tracy Meakin White, 42, spotted the passenger jet from her patio window as it came into land at Birmingham Airport during an electrical storm.

Incredibly, the KLM flight from Amsterdam was struck THREE times, yet still managed to land on Friday  at 4.30pm.

[half]

[/half]

[half]

[/half]
The married mum-of-six from Kingstanding in Birmingham said: “I saw the storm and thought I would take a picture of the lightning.

“I didn’t even see the plane at first, I was just clicking on my phone and then afterwards I saw the aircraft.

“It is amazing that nobody was hurt, we have a lot of planes coming over the house, living so close to the airport, but I have never seen anything like this.

“I think it is a once in a lifetime picture, I doubt I will see anything like that again, I am not a photographer, it was just a stroke of luck I got the shot.”

Passenger Tony Everitt, 51, from Redditch, Worcs., recalled the harrowing moment the plane was hit and recalled hearing a “bang”.

He said: “It was incredible – there was one massive bang. Only moments before, I’d noticed the dark skies and told a passenger sitting next to me that I was surprised there was no thunder and lightning.

“After the bang, my initial thought was the engine had blown-up. Surprisingly, it wasn’t frightening, it was exciting.

“You are waiting for something else to happen, then you realise nothing has gone wrong.”

Mr Everitt, who has returning from a business conference in Holland, revealed the captain only informed those on board of the strike after the plane had landed.

He added: “I know they spend a lot of time in the air, but I’m amazed by how calm they are.

“The pilot simply said, ‘ladies and gentlemen, you may have noticed we were hit by lightning.

“There was no screaming, people were just talking about what happened.”

A spokesman for Birmingham Airport said: “All aircraft landed safely without incident on Friday afternoon.”