Jet lands at MacArthur after lightning strike

Thirty-two US Airways passengers emerged rattled but safe after a lightning strike diverted their plane to Long Island MacArthur Airport Friday afternoon.

US Airways Flight 4507 was traveling from Philadelphia to New Haven, Conn., when it reported a strike, Federal Aviation Administration and airline officials said.

The Bombardier Dash 8 - a twin-engine turboprop plane - landed without incident at MacArthur in Ronkonkoma at 3:13 p.m. Three crew members were aboard.

"We were just cruising and . . . I saw a flash," said passenger Brandon Rapp, 21, a junior from New Orleans studying chemical engineering at Yale. "I'm not quick to panic. A couple of people screamed."

Rachel Webster, 18, a Yale freshman from West Palm Beach, Fla., said she was sleeping when the bolt struck. "There was a huge bang," she said. "It woke everyone up."

Several minutes later, a flight attendant announced the plane had been hit by lightning, passengers said.

MacArthur spokeswoman Catherine Green said that before the plane touched down, the airport received a report that the aircraft was experiencing electrical problems. The airport issued a call to five local fire departments, an ambulance company and Suffolk County police emergency services to stand ready to assist, she said.

A US Airways spokesman declined to comment on whether the plane had experienced electrical problems. "The crew reported a lightning strike. Out of an abundance of caution, they decided to divert to Islip," said airline spokesman Derek Hanna, referring to MacArthur by its old name.

At the time of the incident, thunderstorms were embedded in the snowstorm over eastern Long Island, said Bill Goodman, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service.

In 99 percent of cases, a lightning strike on a commercial plane is a nonevent from a safety standpoint, said John Goglia, an aviation consultant in Boston and former member of the National Transportation Safety Board. That's because modern passenger planes are designed to absorb a lightining strike, he said, and some electrical charges can be channeled through "static wicks" on the wing tips and tail of the aircraft.

However, for passengers, a lightning strike may be a fearful experience.

"Normally, it will flash inside the cabin, and the lights will flip off," Goglia said. "It can be unnerving for passengers."

US Airways provided a bus Friday afternoon from MacArthur to New Haven. Boarding the bus in the midst of a snowstorm, passengers said they were relieved to have ground transportation rather than another flight.

"I thought the engine had blown out," said passenger Joanne Evans-Lewis, 50, a nurse practitioner from Houston traveling to visit her daughter. "I was thinking we were going to have to land in the water."

With Keith Herbert