Lightning strikes reported on two Alaska Airlines flights near Juneau on Sunday

Alaska flight 64 takes off from Petersburg airport in July of 2018. (Photo by Joe Viechnicki/KFSK)

Multiple Alaska Airlines flights were hit by lightning in Southeast Alaska Sunday.

Alaska Airlines confirms that flights 64 and 65 both had lightning strikes from storms that moved through the northern panhandle and likely knocked out power in the capital city Sunday.

Flight 65 was heading to Juneau from Petersburg.

“We were descending into Juneau when they flew through a big cumulus cloud,” said Leo Luczak, a passenger from Petersburg. “It started hailing, and then we saw the flash outside the window and heard a big boom from getting hit by lightning.”

That flight landed in Juneau soon after. Luczak said the pilot notified passengers of the lightning strike and said the plane needed to be inspected. Passengers disembarked and waited in the Juneau International Airport for a flight to Anchorage later that evening. Alaska Airlines said that plane was flown to Seattle without passengers for further inspection.

Juneau’s airport also lost power during the storm.

Meanwhile, Flight 64 was flying out of Juneau that day and also suffered a separate lightning strike. Instead of landing in Petersburg and continuing on to Wrangell, the plane diverted to Ketchikan. The airline says a maintenance technician inspected the plane and cleared it to continue flying. That flight continued on to Seattle. Passengers bound for Petersburg and Wrangell finished their journeys on Monday.

Daniel Hartsock, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Juneau, explained how Sunday’s storms moved into Juneau in the afternoon.

“They intensified over the Juneau area, where we definitely got quite a few lightning strikes with a fairly good-sized thunderstorm that moved across the Auke Bay and the airport and into the valley. And then another storm developed near downtown Juneau and kind of moved over Douglas and that area,” Hartsock said.

Juneau’s electric utility says they believe lightning caused the power outage throughout the capital city that day and said strikes were reported in other parts of Juneau.

Matt Miller at KTOO in Juneau contributed to this report.

KFSK - Petersburg

KFSK is our partner station in Petersburg. KTOO collaborates with partners across the state to cover important news and to share stories with our audiences.

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