- The incident, which was captured on video by a plane spotter, caused no casualties and the plane was able to continue its flight to Heathrow.
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This is the shocking moment lightning struck a plane carrying 400 people flying from Vancouver to London on Sunday.
The Air Canada Boeing 777 was struck by the massive lightning bolt shortly after taking off from the airport in Vancouver, Canada.
The incident, which was captured on video by an airplane spotter, caused no casualties and the plane was able to continue its flight and land as planned at London Heathrow.
The plane had taken off just moments before, but it was already high in the sky.
The stunning video was taken by aviation enthusiast Ethan West, who is studying to become a pilot.
The lightning struck the plane squarely and continued toward the ground.
The lightning struck the plane squarely and continued down the other side towards the ground.
The lightning did not disturb the plane’s flight.
Despite being a terrifying place for those on the ground, the passengers themselves would almost certainly have felt nothing.
According to Executive Flyers, modern airplanes are built with a carbon composite that is covered with a thin layer of copper to conduct electricity around the plane and keep it out.
Passengers might see lightning or the sound of thunder if lightning strikes their plane, but they would not be in danger and would not feel as if they had been struck.
Air Canada said the plane was inspected upon arrival at London Heathrow airport to ensure any damage would affect the safety of the flight.
According to the National Weather Service, the American meteorological agency, each plane is struck by lightning on average once or twice a year.
This may seem like an enormous amount considering the seemingly low probability that two entities moving at such great speeds will be at exactly the same point and at exactly the same time.
Commercial passenger planes travel at about 500 mph. Lightning travels at nearly 700 million mph.
However, the very fact that the plane is in the sky is believed to attract the lightning as the lightning tries to find the fastest route to a solid.
Most lightning strikes occur in near-freezing temperatures at high altitudes or during turbulence, and vary by location.
The plane continued its route to London Heathrow, unharmed by the lightning
The lightning was so bright that you could barely see the plane in the middle of the lightning.
Air Canada said the plane was inspected upon arrival at London Heathrow airport to ensure no damage affected the safety of the flight (File image)
More than half of the lightning strikes that strike airplanes occur between March and July, being more frequent when the plane passes through clouds while ascending or descending.
The rays reach almost 30,000*c, three times hotter than the surface of the sun.
Despite being rare, nine plane crashes attributed to lightning have been recorded.
Seven of these crashed planes were commercial airliners and the other two were military aircraft.
In most of these accidents the plane was flying at low altitude while ascending or descending.
The worst of these accidents was LANSA Flight 508 in 1971, in which 91 of the 92 people on board died.