The plane was “shaking violently”, leaving the pair bouncing up and down and feeling frightened.
Just 10 minutes into the flight, a “deafening” bang rang out across the cabin.
“Everyone was s*** scared. Everyone was off their seat. There were people yelling and screaming, it was crazy,” he said.
He said as the sound rocked the plane, he saw a large orange “fireball” on the plane’s left wing.
It was difficult to hear for the hours after the noise, he said, and he had a bad headache from the sound.
Rich Easton was also travelling to Dunedin on NZ676 for work meetings today.
Easton described seeing a “big flash of lightning” as they ascended through the clouds but didn’t hear a noise where they were seated in the middle of the plane.
She said crew informed passengers that they had to land in Christchurch so the plane could be fully checked.
Easton talked to the Herald in Wellington after being put on another plane. She said she’ll eventually fly from there to Dunedin this afternoon, landing at about 6pm.
“That was the only option to get to Dunedin,” she said.
“Tomorrow night, the irony of it is I’m flying back to Wellington.”
A third passenger, who didn’t want to be named, said while it was a scary experience, the “worst part is now I’m stuck – and I’m sure many others are – at airports”.
“All they gave me was a couple of meal vouchers, which do not go far with the up-price of airport food.”
Air New Zealand chief operations officer Alex Marren confirmed the plane was struck by lightning.
“The aircraft is now undergoing standard engineering checks, and as a result, NZ676 Dunedin-Auckland was cancelled,” Marren said.
“We are reaccommodating customers on alternate services, and we have put on an additional flight from Christchurch to Dunedin to help get customers to where they need to go.”
She said lightning strikes were not uncommon and pilots were trained for the scenario.
The passenger assumed the plane took quite a bit of damage during the incident and was shocked when no messages were said over the loudspeaker and the plane did not turn around after the strike.
Instead, it carried on through to Christchurch, short of its Dunedin destination.
Easton said Air New Zealand staff “were really helpful” and set up several extra desks to re-ticket everybody on the flight.
“It’s not their fault these things happen.”
However, the anonymous passenger said “little was done to solve problems or help those affected by the delays”, claiming there to be poor communication and a lack of reassurance.
MetService recorded 482 lightning strikes from 4am to 7am as an active frontal band of rain swept up the country.
Auckland and Northland were upgraded to a moderate thunderstorm risk as the skies lit up with strikes around the time the flight took off.
Although an experienced flyer, the shaken passenger said he was not “feeling too keen” about the flight home.
“Feeling a bit scared about it, to be honest,” he said.
