Back in 90 I was flying from little rock Arkansas to Michigan. There were bad storms so the flight was delayed until they passed by.
My flight was from little rock, stopped in Memphis then to Chicago for a connection to Michigan.
After we took off we quickly caught up with the storms. On the flight from little rock to Memphis it's just a hop, up and down, you never really level out. The pilot never turned off the fasten seat belt light. The stewardess never unbuckled. He stated over the intercom that it was about to get rough as we went through the storms. Everybody was to stay buckled up and everything was to remain stowed securely.
The plane started to bounce around. There were frequent lightning strikes very close.
Then there was blue lightning color all around the plane and terrible loud sounds. The lights/electric went out. You could feel your body pushing up against the seat belt instead of the seat (obviously we were loosing altitude fast). People were screaming, crying and all. After what seemed like an eternity I heard the engines rev up like on takeoff and the lights came back on. The plane stopped pushing me against my seat belt and obviously leveled off.
The pilot announced we had received a direct lightning strike. The plane was responding to controls properly but there were some electrical issues and the radar was out. We were heading on to Memphis and would land soon.
I always prefer a window seat and was watch as we landed. There were fire trucks lined up along the runway. We approached the terminal, got off the plane and had to find another flight...
Any insight into my flight from an experienced pilot/mechanic?
@New Englander