This is the terrifying moment a plane was struck by lightning shortly after taking off in Belgium on Sunday.
A passenger plane was also struck by a massive lightning bolt during the storm, forcing the pilots to divert and abandon the flight to Egypt.
The TUI plane was heading from Brussels airport to the coastal town of Hurghada when it was hit.
According to TUI spokesperson Piet Demeyere, the plane returned to the airport as a precaution.
Meanwhile, car camera footage on the Brussels Ring Road captured the massive attack on the Qatar-bound cargo plane.
The lightning bolt appeared to pass through the plane and the impact briefly illuminated the sky.
“But despite the impact, the plane did not have to return,” a spokesperson for Brussels airport told Dutch-language Belgian news site HLN.
Passengers on the TUI flight reported hearing a loud bang and a “burning smell”.
The image shows a cargo plane taking off before being struck by lightning on Sunday.
This is the terrifying moment a plane was struck by lightning shortly after takeoff in Belgium on Sunday
One told HLN: ‘Suddenly we heard a loud bang, with a flash of light. Afterwards we also noticed a slight burning smell.
“It was a big shock, with that strong blow.”
Data from aircraft tracking website FlightRadar24 shows that the plane took off from Brussels at 1:35 p.m. local time on December 22.
A map showing the flight route shows the plane traveling in a large, narrow loop before returning to the airport.
After the plane landed, passengers were transferred to hotels and boarded a new flight on Monday.
MailOnline has contacted TUI for further comment.
It comes after a British Airways plane was struck by lightning as it approached Heathrow Airport in July.
Passengers on board flight BA919 from Stuttgart to Heathrow have spoken of their “shock” following the dramatic incident which forced crews to divert to Gatwick.
One passenger, Jeco, told The Sun: “The crew were incredible when our flight was hit by lightning on approach to Heathrow. It was shocking. The flight had to divert to Gatwick.
The TUI plane was traveling from Brussels airport to the coastal town of Hurghada when it was hit (file image)
Passenger Robert Rossall, returning from a trip to Germany to earn euros, praised the response of the captain and his crew, telling MailOnline: “The captain made the decision to land at the safest airport given the conditions and the crash. ray.
‘Once on the tarmac, he was informative and even walked the length of the plane to speak to all the passengers. The cabin crew passed bottled water and calmed down. (It was) handled very professionally.”
An airline pilot previously said that lightning is nothing more than a nuisance to airplanes and a fairly common occurrence.
In his book This Is Your Captain Speaking, Doug Morris explains: ‘Statistics show that an airliner is struck (by lightning) every 5,000 hours, or about once a year. The FAA estimates that all US aircraft will be hit once a year.
He continued: “A lightning strike can disrupt some of the instruments, but it’s usually not a really serious problem because the plane is not grounded.” There may be lightning entering one end and exiting the other and there may only be superficial damage.
‘I’ve only experienced it once: we had a small hole in the nose cone and the exit point on the tail had burned off a small piece of the rear fin support, so we had to put it out of service.
‘It was fine for a temporary flight without passengers.
“After a lightning strike, you’ll probably need to check the plane to make sure all the compasses and electronics haven’t been damaged.”