A TUI airline plane bound for Egypt had to turn around on Sunday after being struck by lightning, as reported by Het Laatste Nieuws and RTL Info. Footage of the incident, filmed by the dashcam of a car which was driving on the Brussels ring road at the time, was shared.
On Sunday afternoon, Moad, a 35-year-old man from Vilvoorde, boarded a plane with his family in Zaventem bound for the Egyptian resort town of Hurghada. The trip was supposed to last about four hours, but shortly after departure the flight took a turn for the worse. “We suddenly heard a loud bang, accompanied by a flash of light. Then, we smelled a slight smell of fire,” the traveler tells our colleagues at HLN. The plane was struck by lightning and had to return to Zaventem airport. The passengers were never in danger and no one was injured. “The sound of the detonation still scared us a little,” admits Moad.
At the time the plane was struck by lightning, Céline was traveling on the Brussels ring road. His car's dashcam filmed the incident. As can be seen in the images obtained by RTL Info, and visible at the start of the article, the lightning appears to pass through the plane shortly after takeoff. The impact lights up the sky for a few seconds. “Wow, did you see the lightning?”, the driver wonders.
Precautionary measure
Piet Demeyere, spokesperson for TUI, specifies that the plane had to return to Zaventem airport as a precautionary measure. “This is a safety measure to make sure there is no problem,” he explained. A lightning strike is generally not dangerous and the damage is usually directly visible. “As far as I know, there haven’t been any,” he added.
Contrary to what was initially indicated, the flight was ultimately unable to leave yesterday. “As the plane did not enter the hangar for direct inspection and the crew would have worked too long, we decided to offer passengers an overnight stay in Brussels. The flight will take off tomorrow,” the spokesperson further declared on Sunday.
Different departure times
The passengers were offered a night at the hotel. Some were accommodated in a hotel across the street from the airport, while others were shuttled to another facility. Before that, travelers were also given a drink or meal voucher to use while waiting at the airport.
Everyone was finally able to leave this Monday aboard two Boeing 737s instead of the original Boeing 787 Dreamliner. The first flight took off at 8 a.m. and the other at 10 a.m. this morning. Despite the different departure times, everyone had to be at the airport by 6am. “This means that many families with children had to wait for hours, after having already had a long and stressful journey the day before,” one passenger testified.
Source: https://www.7sur7.be/
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