A passenger plane flying from Guernsey was struck by lightning as it approached Gatwick Airport, the airline has said.
The 122-seat Aurigny Ambraer 195 jet was hit by the bolt of lightning on Thursday morning, and safely landed at Gatwick and no-one on board was injured.
A spokesman for the airline said:
“We were cleared to land by air traffic control and no other aircraft, operating in the same conditions, were similarly affected. Our aircraft landed normally and no-one was injured or adversely affected in any way.”
The plane was grounded as engineers inspected the minor damage it sustained to it tail, causing severe delays of up to nine hours to some passengers on their flights between Gatwick and the Channel Islands with a smaller 72 seater ATR72 aircraft used to fly the route.
Some passengers took to social media to complain about the delays, citing issues with the airline’s lack of communication and delayed refreshments.