(c) Erik Simonsen
Melissa Locker
February 05, 2016

Passengers on an Etihad flight from Abu Dhabi to Paris were riding out a storm from the safety of their Boeing 777 when they saw something spectacular—lightning strike the wing of their plane.

Travelers Mitchell and Amie Stewart happened to be filming out the window during the storm, and their video captured the exact moment that lightning struck their wing, causing a massive static discharge into the clouds. The footage is dramatic, but rest assured nervous fliers, the plane made its scheduled landing at Paris’s Charles De Gaulle Airport without further incident.

While lightning looks beautifully frightening from the skies, modern aircraft are designed to withstand lightning strikes—and the accumulation of static electricity—with little or no damage to the plane. To be sure, though, after a pilot reports a lightning strike, typically the plane is inspected for any possible damage before the aircraft is approved for its next flight.

“It is not uncommon for aircraft to be struck by lightning while flying in bad weather and they are built to withstand a direct hit,” a spokesperson for Etihad told the Daily Mail. “The amazing footage captured by our guest on flight EY37 from Abu Dhabi to Paris demonstrates this brilliantly.”

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