Southwest Airlines flight 5451 was on the way from San Jose to Burbank when it was struck by lightning on Sunday.
Whitney Wright who was on the flight said, “It was a bright flash and the entire plane shook, like it was the second coming. Every one on board was completely freaked out.”
The captain came on the loud speak overhead to assure everyone that the plane was okay and that they were considering turning around. A short while later, after speaking with ground maintenance, the captain told the passengers they would be continuing on to their final destination since they were more than half way there at the time.
When the plane actually landed, Southwest found that the lightning didn’t actually hit the aircraft but was instead a near miss. They went on to say that safety is their top priority and they are sorry for any worry or concern that the incident caused.
Whitney Wright was on her way home from a porn shoot when the incident took place. She went on to say “I travel all the time. I’ve been around the world and this has never happened.”
Another passenger said, “I’ve never seen anything like this in all my years of flying.”
Interestingly enough, Southwest flight 5451, sustained another lighting strike when on the way to San Diego from Las Vegas in January 7, 2016. Officials called it “cloud to ground lightning“.
No injuries were reported on either occasion.
Sounds to me like this flight may be a little cursed. Remind me not to ever take Southwest flight 5451, no matter where it’s going.
When exiting the plane Whitney Wright and other passengers looked for char marks and while she can’t say for sure what it was, there was a big black mark on the nose of the plane.
We are glad that Whitney Wright made it home safely and unscathed.
Hopefully her next shoot won’t be so life threatening.
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