Alaska flight 64 takes off from Petersburg airport in July of 2018. (Joe Viechnicki/KFSK)

Multiple Alaska Airlines flights were hit by lightning in Southeast Alaska Sunday.

Alaska Airlines confirms that flights 64 and 65 both had lightning strikes from storms that moved through the northern panhandle and also knocked out power in the capital city Sunday.

Flight 65 was heading to Juneau from Petersburg.

“We were descending into Juneau when they flew through a big cumulus cloud,” said Leo Luczak, a passenger from Petersburg. “It started hailing and then we saw the flash outside the window and heard a big boom from getting hit by lightning.”

That flight landed in Juneau soon after. Luczak said the pilot notified passengers of the lightning strike and said the plane needed to be inspected. Passengers disembarked and waited in the Juneau airport for a flight to Anchorage later that evening. Juneau’s airport also lost power during the storm. Alaska Airlines says that plane was flown to Seattle without passengers for further inspection.

Meanwhile flight 64 was flying out of Juneau that day and also suffered a separate lightning strike. Instead of landing in Petersburg and continuing on to Wrangell the plane diverted to Ketchikan. The airline says a maintenance technician inspected the plane and cleared it to continue flying. That flight continued on to Seattle. Passengers bound for Petersburg and Wrangell finished their journeys on Monday.

The company says no other planes were hit Sunday. However, passengers report another strike. Bill Menish of Petersburg said he was on two separate flights hit by lightning in one day. He and his wife were on flight 65 that landed in Juneau.

“We were probably down I don’t know around 20,000 feet or less, probably less and going through some clouds and then all of sudden there’s this more of a, kind of a big pop, and then just immediately on the tail of that was this bright flash,” he described. “It was almost kind of like a reddish yellow flash. It kind of startled everybody. Nobody panicked too bad though that I could tell but it definitely caught everybody’s attention.”

And Menish said their connecting flight 76 from Juneau to Seattle also was hit.

“When we took off were climbing out, the same thing only this was actually a louder pop and a brighter flash,” Menish said. “So I don’t know if it was something stronger but it was definitely louder and brighter.”

KTOO radio reports that storms were seen in Pelican as early as 8 o’clock Sunday morning and then moved through Icy Strait, Gustavus, Funter Bay, Douglas Island, and up and down Stephens Passage. A big lightning show was reported in Excursion Inlet, west of Juneau.

Daniel Hartsock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau explained the storms moved into Juneau in the afternoon.

“They intensified over the Juneau area where we definitely got quite a few lightning strikes with a fairly good sized thunder storm that moved across the Auke Bay and the airport and into the valley and then another storm developed near downtown Juneau and kind of moved over Douglas and that area,” Hartsock said.

Juneau’s electric utility says lightning caused the power outage throughout the capital city that day and said strikes were reported in other parts of Juneau.

Matt Miller at KTOO in Juneau contributed to this report. This story has been updated with additional passenger accounts. </s> Lightning strikes disabled the aircraft fuelling system at London Stansted Airport, delaying more than 200 flights were delayed at Stansted.

Meteorologist Charlie Powell told AP there were "somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000 strikes across the UK during the overnight period." </s> MOSCOW-A Russian passenger plane has made an emergency landing in a cornfield near Moscow after striking a flock of birds.

Fifty-five people reportedly sought medical treatment after the incident, which saw the plane land with its engines off and landing gear retracted.

The Ural Airlines Airbus 321 was travelling to Simferopol in Crimea when it hit the flock of gulls shortly after take-off, disrupting its engines.

State media has dubbed the landing the “miracle over Ramensk”.

The Kremlin on Thursday hailed the pilots as heroes for “saving people’s lives and landing the plane”. A spokesman said they would receive state awards soon. The airline said the plane was significantly damaged and would not fly again. An official investigation is under way. The plane had more than 230 passengers and crew on board when the birds were reportedly sucked into its engines and the crew immediately decided to land. An unnamed passenger told state TV the plane started to shake violently after take-off.

“Five seconds later, the lights on the right side of the plane started flashing and there was a smell of burning. Then we landed and everyone ran away,” he said. Air transport agency Rosaviatsia said the plane landed in a cornfield about a kilometre (0.62 miles) from the runway at Zhukovsky International Airport, with its engines off and landing gear retracted.

Passengers were evacuated from the plane, with 55 then seeking medical treatment and six taken to hospital, medical sources told state news agency Tass. Ural Airlines Director General Kirill Skuratov told the news agency that passengers who wanted to continue with their trip would be put on alternative flights.

Russian media compared the incident to the US Airways flight that carried out an emergency landing on the Hudson River shortly after take-off in 2009.

Collisions between birds and planes are a common occurrence in aviation, with thousands reported every year in the US alone. However, they rarely result in accidents or cause damage to the aircraft. </s> LONDON: Huge lightning strikes reportedly hit the UK during a powerful overnight thunderstorm, disrupting flights at London Airport after an aircraft refueling system was damaged on Sunday.

According to reports, lightning strike disabled the fueling system at London Stansted Airport for a period on Sunday morning. Engineers have been on site and have restored the system, however flights may still be subject to diversion, delay or cancellation.

Thunderstorms and torrential rain have swept across parts of southern Britain, with lightning flashing across the sky. Around 15,000 lightning strikes were recorded in four hours on Saturday night. 



More than 200 flights were delayed at Stansted. Another 31 departures and 18 arrivals were cancelled, according media citing FlightStats, which provides data on commercial aviation.

London-area airports were busier than usual, since Britain is in the middle of a long holiday weekend, and many schoolchildren also have a half-term break this coming week.

While, 1,000 properties had been left without power across the Midlands, with the majority of outages down to lightning. </s> LONDON (AP) — British meteorologists say up to 20,000 lightning strikes hit the U.K. during a powerful overnight thunderstorm, and a London-area airport is reporting flight disruptions after an aircraft refueling system was damaged. London Stansted Airport said Sunday that a lightning strike h… </s> (Reuters) - An airline mechanic stole an airplane at Seattle–Tacoma International Airport on Friday and was chased by two U.S. military jets before crashing on a nearby sparsely populated island, the local sheriff said.

There was no indication that the incident was an act of terror, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department said on Twitter.

No passengers were onboard and normal operations have resumed at the airfield, the airport said on Twitter.

The 29-year-old pilot was suicidal and appeared to have acted alone, the sheriff said, adding he was probably killed in the crash. The pilot’s identity has not been made public.

“Was doing stunts in air or lack of flying skills caused crash into Island,” the sheriff said on Twitter.

Constance von Muehlen, chief operating officer of Horizon Air, a sister carrier of Alaska Airlines, said that at about 8 p.m. an employee of the airline undertook an unauthorized take-off of a Q400 twin-engine turboprop airplane.

It is unclear how the employee was able to taxi the plane on a runway and take off without authorization. An Alaska Air spokesman said he did not have information about how the incident occurred.

Two F-15s fighter jets pursued the plane but were not involved in the crash, local TV station KIRO7 reported.

“Told F-15s made it within a few minutes of theft of plane. Pilots kept plane out of harm’s way and people on ground safe,” the sheriff said on Twitter.

Video footage on social media showed a large plane flying above the Seattle area with an F-15 following it.

“Okay this insane. A pilot on the plane in front of us just went rogue and took off on an empty plane bypassing orders from the tower,” tweeted Ben Schaechter, a passenger on an airplane that was taxiing to take off before the incident.

Fire crews were working on putting out the fire from the crash on Ketron Island in Puget Sound. Ketron Island is a sparsely populated island 25 miles (40 km) southwest of the airport.

The Bombardier Q400 turboprop airplane is designed for shorter-distance flights and can seat 76 passengers, Alaska Air said on its website. </s> Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Passengers used emergency exit slides to escape

Forty-one people died after a Russian plane made an emergency landing and burst into flames just after takeoff from Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport.

Dramatic video shows passengers using emergency exit slides to escape the burning Aeroflot aircraft.

Survivors suggest the plane was struck by lightning, but Russia's national carrier said only that it returned to the airport for technical reasons.

Two children are among the dead. The jet had 73 passengers and five crew.

Initial reports suggested the plane had landed on fire, but sources quoted by Russian news agency Interfax said the jet caught fire after a very bumpy landing.

The aircraft landed with full fuel tanks because the crew lost contact with air traffic controllers and decided it was too dangerous to dump fuel over Moscow, Interfax added.

"There are 37 survivors - 33 passengers and four members of the crew," said Yelena Markovskaya, an official involved in the investigation of the crash.

A flight attendant was also reportedly killed in the incident. Five people are in hospital. One witness said it was a "miracle" anyone escaped.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Black smoke billows from the burning plane on the tarmac at Sheremetyevo airport

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption The plane had just taken off from Sheremetyevo airport when it caught fire

Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev has ordered a special committee to investigate the disaster.

What happened to the plane?

The aircraft, a Sukhoi Superjet-100, left the airport at 18:02 local time (15:02 GMT), bound for Murmansk.

Its crew sent a distress signal when "malfunctions" occurred in bad weather shortly after take-off.

After making an emergency landing at the airport, the plane's engines caught fire on the runway, Aeroflot said, adding that the crew "did everything to save the passengers".

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The rear of the Aeroflot plane was completely burnt out

One passenger who survived the crash, Petr Egorov, was quoted by the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily newspaper as saying that the flight "had just taken off and the aircraft was hit by lightning", adding: "The landing was rough - I almost passed out from fear."

Image caption The jet returned to the airport within 30 minutes of departing

Aeroflot published a list of survivors (in Russian) who have been identified so far.

Murmansk's Acting Governor Andrey Chibis has reportedly said that the families of those killed in the fire will each receive one million rubles ($15,300; £11,630), while the victims being treated in hospital will be given 500,000 rubles ($7,650; £5,815).

Image copyright Reuters Image caption Ambulances wait in front of the terminal building at Sheremetyevo airport

How did the survivors escape?

Mikhail Savchenko claims he was on the plane when it exploded into a fireball on the tarmac but "managed to jump out".

He shared a video of passengers running away from the burning plane, posting: "'Guys I am all right, I am alive and in one piece."

Passengers on board a separate plane awaiting takeoff at the airport posted footage on social media showing fire crews attending the plane on the tarmac.

One of the surviving passengers, Dmitry Khlebushkin, said that he was very grateful to the flight attendants. "Only thanks to the flight attendants, I survived," he told reporters.

Kristian Kostov, a former Bulgarian Eurovision contestant, has posted on social media about witnessing the incident.

He said people at the airport were left "shaking" after seeing the aircraft engulfed by fire.

Another eyewitness, Patrick Horlacher, told the BBC it was "shocking to see" the plane being ravaged by flames just minutes before he was due to board another flight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly been briefed and expressed condolences to the families of victims.

The region of Murmansk has announced a three-day mourning period.

Can lightning bring down a plane?

With millions of commercial flights taking place every year, lightning strikes in the air are relatively common.

Traditional planes, built using aluminium, are usually able to withstand such strikes as the shell or "skin" of the aircraft acts as a cage, distributing the electricity without causing damage and allowing them to continue their journey safely.

Some newer aircraft are constructed using lighter materials that have lower electrical conductivity, such as carbon fibre, which need to be protected - often using wire mesh or foil.

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption A plane takes to the air as lightning strikes (stock photo)

In addition, the electronics and connections to an aircraft's fuel tanks are heavily shielded to protect them from external electrical bursts.

Lightning strikes can cause technical malfunctions, causing planes to divert or make emergency landings for precautionary reasons. But crashes following such incidents are rare.

A strike is still likely to be noticed by people on board, though. Passengers may hear loud bangs or experience the cabin lighting up with a bright flash.

Have you been affected? Email haveyoursay@bbc.co.uk

Please include a contact number if you are willing to speak to a BBC journalist. You can also contact us in the following ways: </s> On 5 May, an Aeroflot Sukhoi Superjet 100-95B (RA-89098) departed from Moscow Sheremetyevo Airport for flight SU1492 towards Murmansk. Shortly into the flight, the pilots requested to return to Moscow for an emergency landing as the aircraft was hit by a lightning strike losing all electronics on board. 30 minutes after take-off – during the roll out – the aircraft burst into flames, veered left off the runway and came to a stop on the grass adjacent to the runway, the aircraft completely burned down.

“The aircraft issued a distress signal (squawk 7600 – radio failure -, then escalated to 7700 – emergency -, ed.) after take-off. The pilots tried an emergency landing, did not succeed the first time and, at the second attempt, the landing gear hit the ground, then the nose, and the aircraft ignited,” said a source at the Interfax news agency.

In total, 73 passengers and five crew members were onboard the aircraft. Russian media announced that 41 passengers died in the accident, leaving 37 survivors; at least six injured passengers were hospitalized. Initial reports suggest that the fire originated from electrical equipment on board. News agency TASS is reporting that the crew confirmed that their aircraft was hit by a lightning strike.

The airport authorities closed the particular runway, seriously reducing the airport’s capacity.

In a short statement on their website, Aeroflot confirmed the accident with flight SU1492: “The aircraft headed back to Moscow Sheremetyevo after technical issues and caught fire after landing. The passengers left the aircraft via the emergency slides. Victims have been reported, but the exact number still needs to be specified. Emergency medical care is provided to all those in need.”

The aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi Civil Aircraft also issued a rather strange statement:

“On May 5, 2019, SSJ100 performing its flight Moscow-Murmansk returned to the airport of departure upon receipt of the information about the abnormality aboard. After tough landing, the aircraft was burned down. The investigation is launched. The representatives of the Sukhoi Civil Aircraft Company, the manufacturer of the aircraft, are part of the commission conducting the investigation. The following information is to be provided as long as it will appear.

The aircraft MSN 95135 was produced in August 2017. It was under scheduled maintenance at the beginning of April 2019.”

A commission has been established to investigate the causes and circumstances of the accident. The Aeroflot crisis headquarters was quickly assembled.

Посадка пылающего Sukhoi Superjet 100 в Шереметьево. Пилоты – стальные люди pic.twitter.com/ETlzOHbUKw — Дмитрий Смирнов (@dimsmirnov175) May 5, 2019

Суперджет Аэрофлота RA-89098 , рейс AFL1492 pic.twitter.com/nbKN6RsZfV — rouben (@newaviator) May 5, 2019

Шереметьево. Аэрофлот . Сухой Суперджет RA-89098. SU 1492 Москва – Мурманск. https://t.co/B3wUcI5jvy — С.К. (@Sergey_2908) May 5, 2019

1 osoba zginęła a 10 zostało rannych w wyniku awaryjnego lądowania samolotu Rosyjskich Linii Lotniczych Aeroflot, na pokładzie którego tuż po starcie wybuchł pożar… https://t.co/tOGRAp52EA — T.D.Jędruchów (@tdjedruchow) May 5, 2019

UPDATE: Aeroflot #SU1492 footage shows the Sukhoi Superjet bounced on initial touchdown followed by an even harder 2nd ground contact during which the undercarriage collapsed and a fire broke out. There is no visible fire before that point. pic.twitter.com/eIaqmJk8uC — JACDEC (@JacdecNew) May 5, 2019 </s> MOSCOW (Reuters) - Forty-one people on board a Russian Aeroflot passenger plane were killed on Sunday, including two children, after the aircraft caught fire as it made a bumpy emergency landing at a Moscow airport, Russian investigators said. Television footage showed the Sukhoi Superjet 100 crash bouncing along the tarmac at Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport before the rear part of the plane suddenly burst into flames.

Many passengers on board SU 1492 then escaped via the plane's emergency slides that inflated after the hard landing. The plane, which had been flying from Moscow to the northern Russian city of Murmansk, had been carrying 73 passengers and five crew members, Russia's aviation watchdog said.

Svetlana Petrenko, a spokeswoman for Russia's Investigative Committee, said in a statement that only 37 out of 78 people on board had survived, meaning 41 people had lost their lives.No official cause has been given for the disaster.

The Investigative Committee said it had opened an investigation and was looking into whether the pilots had breached air safety rules. Some passengers blamed bad weather and lightning. "We took off and then lightning struck the plane," the Komsomolskaya Pravda daily cited one surviving passenger, Pyotr Egorov, as saying.

"The plane turned back and there was a hard landing. We were so scared, we almost lost consciousness. The plane jumped down the landing strip like a grasshopper and then caught fire on the ground." State TV broadcast mobile phone footage shot by another passenger in which people could be heard screaming.

President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev expressed their condolences and ordered investigators to establish what had happened. The Interfax news agency cited an unnamed "informed source" as saying the evacuation of the plane had been delayed by some passengers insisting on collecting their hand luggage first. Russian news agencies reported that injured passengers were being treated in hospitals.

DEBRIS IN THE ENGINES

The Flightradar24 tracking service showed that the plane had circled twice over Moscow before making an emergency landing after just under 30 minutes in the air. The plane's under-carriage gave way on impact and its engines caught fire.

Interfax cited a source as saying the plane had only succeeded making an emergency landing on the second attempt and that some of the aircraft's systems had then failed. The emergency landing was so hard that debris had found its way into the engines, sparking a fire that swiftly engulfed the rear of the fuselage, the same source said.

Russian investigators said they were looking into various versions.Russian news agencies reported that the plane had been produced in 2017 and had been serviced as recently as April this year. Aeroflot has long shaken off its troubled post-Soviet safety record and now has one of the world's most modern fleets on international routes where it relies on Boeing and Airbus aircraft.

Russian officials are keen for Aeroflot to buy more Sukhoi Superjets, a regional airliner, for domestic flights to support the country's fledgling civil aircraft industry. The plane is built in Russia's Far East. A Sukhoi Superjet crashed in Indonesia in 2012, killing all 45 people on board in an accident blamed on human error.

The Superjet entered service in 2011 and was the first new passenger jet developed in Russia since the fall of the Soviet Union. It has been hit, however, by sporadic concerns over safety and reliability, including a December 2016 grounding after a defect was discovered in an aircraft's tail section.

Russian officials said on Sunday it was premature to talk of grounding the Sukhoi Superjet for now. The plane is predominantly used by Russian airlines like Aeroflot, but is also used by a few other foreign operators, including a low-cost Mexican airline.

Dozens of flights at Sheremetyevo were delayed because of the disaster

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Lightning strikes on at least two Alaska Airlines planes force them to make emergency landings in Southeast Alaska. Lightning also knocked out electrical service to the state capital, Juneau.