The plane flying from Glasgow to Barra was struck by lightning during high winds on Monday, it has emerged.

Ten passengers and two crew escaped without injury in the incident involving the Twin Otter aircraft which later landed safely on the beach landing site, the Traigh Mhor at Northbay.

Passenger Andy Jarozh, a travel writer, paid tribute to the skill of the two Loganair pilots

Operator Loganair has confirmed that an inspection after it landed found a wing tip had been damaged, undoubtedly by a bolt of lightning.

Travel writer Andy Jarozh, from St Albans in Hertfordshire, was one of the 10 passengers on the flight and he was sitting in the front seats, just behind the cockpit.

He told this blog: “We were at about 8,000 feet when it happened. Looking through the cockpit, there was a flash and a very loud bang. The plane didn’t shudder at all but carried straight on. However, when I looked into the cockpit I could see the Global Positioning System (GPS) had been knocked out and was showing the message ‘no signal’.”

Andy said there was no great panic although a woman behind him did scream. The calm actions of the two pilots helped the passengers to keep their emotions under control.

“They got the instruments going again. I was anxious to get down but we were reassured by the crew. The co-pilot turned round and gave us the thumbs-up with a quizzical look to make sure we were all right.”

He described it as “a very rough day” and said the plane was shaking more on the ground when it came to a stop at the terminal building than when it was in the air.

In the last four years since Andy gave up his job as an optometrist to become a travel writer, he has visited many countries and flown countless times. He said: “This was the only time in my life when I joined in the applause for a pilot who had got us down safely.”

Phil Preston, Loganair’s chief operating officer, said an inspection was later completed by engineers in their hangar at Glasgow Airport, as was standard procedure.

He added: “There was evidence that a wing tip had been struck, but the Twin Otter was cleared to continue operations.
“Such incidents are not uncommon when flying in adverse weather and our pilots and aircraft are perfectly capable of dealing with these situations when they arise.”