{"id":1023287,"date":"2026-06-13T04:00:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1023287\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T04:00:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T04:00:18","slug":"american-airlines-flight-struck-lightning-uk-forced-return-london","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1023287\/","title":{"rendered":"American Airlines flight struck lightning UK, forced return London"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A North Carolina-bound flight was forced into a U-turn just 30 minutes into its journey after multiple lightning bolts struck the plane in UK airspace, according to a report.<\/p>\n<p>American Airlines flight AA735 was flying over Manchester, England on Wednesday when the plane was hit and pilots decided to reverse course, reports the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.standard.co.uk\/news\/london\/heathrow-flight-london-lightning-american-airlines-b1285640.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">London Evening Standard<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.4862119;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39663574\" width=\"877\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/AdobeStock_304219705_Editorial_Use_Only.jpg\" alt=\"American Airlines Boeing 787 on final approach to O'Hare International Airport.\" class=\"wp-image-39663574\"  \/>The plane, a 777-300ER passenger jet, will undergo inspections from the FAA and the UK Civil Aviation Authority before it is permitted to fly again. Carlos Yudica \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n<p>Air traffic control received the pilot\u2019s squawk 7700, a general emergency code, around 3:30 p.m. and the plane was cleared for a priority return to London.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The flight landed at London Heathrow around 4:35 p.m. and crews inspected the aircraft on the runway.<\/p>\n<p>A large majority of large passenger aircraft can withstand lightning, however, the planes must undergo \u201cexpensive\u201d damage inspections when they are struck, so airlines \u201cavoid thunderstorms as much as possible,\u201d <a href=\"http:\/\/weather.gov\/safety\/lightning-planes\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">explains<\/a> the National Weather Service.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39663578\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-sb10064199bn-001.jpg\" alt=\"Aerial view of multiple British Airways planes parked at an airport terminal with jet bridges connected.\" class=\"wp-image-39663578\"  \/>The flight landed at London Heathrow around 4:35 p.m. and crews inspected the aircraft on the runway. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>There hasn\u2019t been a lightning-caused commercial airline crash in decades, however, small and experimental aircraft are more vulnerable, according to the NWS.<\/p>\n<p>The plane, a 777-300ER passenger jet, will undergo inspections from the FAA and the UK Civil Aviation Authority before it is permitted to fly again, the Standard reports.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A North Carolina-bound flight was forced into a U-turn just 30 minutes into its journey after multiple lightning&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1023288,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[11392,748,393,65377,4884,257,16,15,263],"class_list":["post-1023287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-american-airlines","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-faa","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1023287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1023287\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1023288"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1023287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1023287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1023287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}