By Sentinel Staff
Lightning struck Alaska Airlines Flight 70 on the approach to Sitka Sunday night, causing momentary alarm among the passengers, but the plane continued to a safe landing at the airport.
There was no apparent damage to the Boeing 737-700 jet, but in accordance with airline policy the plane was ferried to Seattle for inspection, an airline spokesman said in an email to the Sentinel.
Frank Balovich and his family were on the flight, returning from a four-day weekend in Juneau to celebrate his daughter’s birthday.
Balovich recalled today that as the plane was descending for the landing there was a boom that rattled the cabin, and a flash of light.
“There was a big gasp, everybody is like, ‘oh!’ All kinds of noises mixed together … you can see like six rows around you and everyone around you is talking, looking around,” Balovich said.
“It was really scary, but it sounded like a loud firecracker or seal bomb going off,” he said, comparing it to the noisemakers used to haze seals away from fishing lines. “Boom! With a flash of light all at once. It was very sudden. And the boom was very close to it, sometimes the boom comes after.”
“Jet aircraft are designed to withstand a lightning strike and continue to fly safely,” Alaska Airlines’ representative Tim Thompson said in the email today. “Lightning will typically discharge from the aircraft through static discharge wicks on the wing or tail area. Passengers may see this discharge. When an aircraft has a lightning strike, the aircraft is taken out of service. This aircraft was ferried to Seattle for inspection.”
