NEED TO KNOW
- A plane traveling from Tampa to Denver “sustained a possible lightning strike,” according to Southwest Airlines
- The airline told PEOPLE that following the Sunday, May 25 incident, “Our maintenance teams took the aircraft out of service for inspection”
- There were no reported injuries
A Southwest Airlines flight made a safe landing after possibly being struck by lightning during Memorial Day weekend.
Southwest Airlines told PEOPLE in a statement that the Sunday, May 25, flight traveling from Tampa International Airport “sustained a possible lightning strike” on its way to Denver International Airport and “landed safely.”
“Our maintenance teams took the aircraft out of service for inspection. There were no injuries,” the statement continued.
Emergency crews at Denver International Airport also responded per standard protocol, per KUSA.
According to CBS Colorado, citing FlightAware data, Southwest Airlines Flight 168 took off from Tampa International Airport at about 6:54 p.m. EDT. It landed at Denver International Airport at 8:23 p.m. MDT and arrived at its gate 13 minutes later.
Passenger Mariah Torrez told KUSA she heard a loud bang and saw a flash of light while traveling through rough turbulence about 20 minutes from landing in Denver.
“So I was just kind of looking out the window, and all of a sudden I just see this bright light, kind of like, light up the aircraft, and kind of shook our seats a little bit, and we were like, Oh my gosh. Like, what just happened?” she recalled.
“I’m looking at my husband, and he was like, I think we just got hit by lightning,” continued Torrez. “And I was like, No way. And then everybody kind of around us was, like thinking the same thing.”
The National Weather Service states on its website that commercial transport passenger planes are hit by lightning an average of “one or two times a year.”
“They are designed and built to have conducting paths through the plane to take the lightning strike and conduct the currents,” the website states.
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While it is unknown where the possible lightning strike occurred, CBS Colorado reported that the plane’s mapped course showed it flying over a storm system in central Louisiana and east Texas midway through the flight.
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