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Passengers on an Air New Zealand flight from Wellington to Auckland yesterday afternoon were shaken by a lightning strike during their descent.
Auckland environmental consultant Gary Taylor, one of 120 passengers on the Boeing 737, said he saw "a ball of light" flashing up the sky outside the port side of the aircraft.
That was accompanied by a clap of thunder, leaving passengers gasping and wondering what had happened.
But there was no apparent physical impact, and Mr Taylor was unaware that lightning had struck the aircraft until it landed about 3pm, and the flight captain made an announcement telling passengers what had happened.
"He said there was a lightning strike at about 8000ft during our descent, and it did a little bit of damage to the plane."
Air NZ spokeswoman Tracey Palmer said the lightning had struck the aircraft's radome, which is on the nose and houses its weather radar antenna.
But she said the flight was not endangered by the strike.
"The impact did not cause any airworthiness issues for the aircraft, and the safety of passengers was at no time compromised."
