Tuesday, May 29, 2007
A JetBlue Airbus A320 airliner, JetBlue Flight 43, made an emergency landing ahead of other scheduled flights on Sunday after being struck by lightning whilst en route between Rochester and John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) with 140 passengers on board. None of the passengers were injured in the incident.
JetBlue said lightning strikes are a relatively common occurrence on commercial airliners, which are designed to cope with such events. However, a smell similar to that of an electrical fire permeated the cabin, although there was no smoke. After passengers reported the smell the pilot decided to make an emergency landing.
Bryan Baldwin, a JetBlue spokesman, told reporters that the plane made an emergency landing at JFK just before 6:00 p.m. local time, meaning that passengers actually arrived at their destination twenty minutes early.