Thomson Flight Forced To Land In London After Being Hit By Lightning

A plane travelling from Manchester to Morocco had to make an emergency landing in London after it was struck by lightning.

The Boeing 737-800 Thomson Airways flight, which can carry up to 189 passengers, was forced to touch-down at London Gatwick at 6:42pm, just an hour after take off.

Thomson Airways said the plane resumed flight from Gatwick some time after 10:00pm after a two two-hour delay.

A spokesperson for the airline said lighting bolts like this are extremely rare.

Credit: Getty

"Thomson Airways can confirm that flight TOM732 travelling from Manchester Airport to Agadir in Morocco, diverted to London Gatwick as a precautionary measure after suffering a lightning strike.

"The flight has now departed from London Gatwick Airport. The safety of our customers and crew is of paramount importance to us and we would like to reassure customers that events such as these are extremely rare."

Luckily, lightning didn't strike twice and everyone got to their destination safely.

Words by Josh Teal

Featured image credit: Getty

Josh Teal

Josh Teal is a journalist at LADbible. He has contributed to the 'Knowing Me, Knowing EU' and 'UOKM8?' campaigns interviewing everyone from student drug dealers to climate change activists.

@tealioni