This is the terrifying moment a passenger plane is struck by a huge bolt of lightning as it leaves a UK airport.
The Aer Lingus flight was heading to the skies above Birmingham when the epic lightning strike began during Storm Ciara began.
The plane, which had left Birmingham Airport just after 9.30pm on Sunday, was undamaged by the strike and continued to Dublin, landing safely just before 10.40pm.
Eyewitness Daniel Pereira, 31, was watching TV with his partner Roxanne Dempster when he saw a huge flash on the other side of his blinds and heard a loud bang, Birmingham Live reports.
He said: “We were watching TV when we saw a huge light on the other side of our closed blinds and then a heard a huge noise which made our dogs jump.
“Roxanne said that couldn’t have just been normal lightning and checked the CCTV to see what happened.
“Our dogs don’t normally care about thunderstorm noise so it was strange that were so scared.
“We couldn’t believe what is had been, we see planes going over our house all the time, never seen anything like that before.”
Mr Pereira loaded the footage to his Facebook page where it was viewed more than 10,000 times in 10 minutes, been widely shared and has gathered nearly 900 comments.
A spokeswoman from Aer Lingus said: “Aer Lingus can confirm that on its departure from Birmingham Airport at 21:33, flight EI 277 to Dublin encountered lightning.
“The aircraft, which is designed to withstand regular weather occurrences, was not damaged and operated as normal to Dublin where it landed at 22:38.”
Speculation was rife on Sunday evening as Birmingham residents took to social media to say they also heard a loud bang.
Shane Patrick Cuzick said: “Heard this at the Heathway, a strange sounding crack of lightning and then what sounded like a jet engine revving in reverse.”
Karen Carolan wrote: “Right by our house. It was so loud we thought our roof had come down - this is a few doors away from us!”
Debbie McGuigan added: “It lit up my living room and was really loud.”
A spokeswoman from Birmingham Airport said: “Aircraft are built to withstand lightning and do frequently encounter lightning during flying.
“Aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes by using static wicks which allow the electricity to pass back into the air from the fuselage.”
