A Shetland woman has described how a Loganair plane was struck by lightning on its approach to Sumburgh Airport.
The Saab aircraft, with 29 passengers and three crew on board, had to return to Aberdeen where it was met by the airport’s emergency crew after landing safely on Monday night.
Returning from a holiday, Shona Manson said it was only after they landed in Aberdeen and the captain, looking a little shaken, came out of the cockpit to speak to passengers that she realised how potentially serious the incident could have been.
“I’m not a scared flyer, but it was really, really bumpy,” she said. “If it was someone who’s a bad flyer, it’d be their worst nightmare.
“We were on descent and I said to my partner, we’re going back up again, and just as we started to go up again there was an almighty bang and a flash that went over the left wing.
“Then we were really ascending, and at that point there were a few folk looking around going ‘oh my God, what’s happening?’
“The poor guy across the isle from me just had eyes like rabbits in headlights.”
She added that one Glaswegian man, who was heading up to work in Shetland for a week, was so shaken that he decided he wasn’t getting back on the plane the next day and headed home instead.
A spokesman for Loganair said the captain of flight BE6780 decided to return to Aberdeen and a precautionary Mayday call was made at around 7pm.
The flight had departed at 6.20pm and returned to Aberdeen at 8pm. Passengers were put up in a hotel overnight and continued their journey yesterday morning.