Lightning strikes plane at Atlanta airport, passengers unhurt

Lightning struck a Delta Air Lines plane in line for takeoff at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport this week with no reports of injuries among the 117 people on board.
An amateur video recording shows rain drenching the airfield crowded with aircraft, waiting to take off from the world's busiest airport.
The lightning struck the Delta Air Lines plane 18 seconds into a 36-second video, CNN reported today.
"While filming the line of planes all stacked up during a ground hold in Atlanta on 8/18/15 I happened to capture this direct lightning strike on a 737," wrote a YouTube poster by the name of Jack Perkins. He posted the video on Wednesday.

Delta spokesman Morgan Durrant confirmed that lightning struck Las Vegas-bound Delta Flight 67 on Tuesday, as the Boeing 737-900R aircraft was in the takeoff queue in Atlanta.
There were no reports of injuries among the 111 customers and six crew, Durrant said.

The plane took off nearly two hours late but landed only about 20 minutes later than scheduled, according to FlightAware.Com.
"As with any event involving aircraft, Delta is doing a thorough investigation of the circumstances around this flight as safety is always Delta's top priority," Durrant said in an email.
"Aircraft design allows lightning bolts to be safely redirected," Durrant wrote. "Fuselage structure and industrial-grade insulation acts as (a) super-conductive lightning rod that rechannels lightning around and away from customers and crew and out into the ground via the landing gear."

Planes are hit by lightning strikes more commonly than travelers probably realise and are designed with that in mind, the report quoted commercial airline pilot and AskThePilot.Com blogger Patrick Smith as saying.