Earlier this week, a Pegasus Airlines Boeing 737-800 operating a flight to Stockholm suffered a lightning strike in Istanbul.
Such an incident prompted a number of holds to get the aircraft safely under control before returning to it’s home airport.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
PC1281 – Istanbul-Stockholm…
Pegasus Airlines flight PC1281 is a routine scheduled flight between Istanbul and Stockholm.
The aircraft involved in the lightning strike is registered as TC-AIS.
As per data from Planespotters.net, TC-AIS is a 12.4 year old Boeing 737-800 that was delivered to the airline in December 2011.
Furthermore, of the 737-800 variant, Pegasus Airlines has 10, of which nine are in active service and one parked.
Average fleet age for that variant of aircraft in the airline stands at 9.6 years.
PC1281 departed Istanbul at 1303 local time and initially proceeded to Stockholm.
However, rather than turn northbound, the aircraft turned south and entered a series of holds.
After holding was completed, the aircraft was then vectored back into Istanbul by air traffic controllers.
PC1281 landed safely back into SAW without further incident around one hour and nine minutes after departure.
Reporting from The Aviation Herald states that the aircraft suffered a lightning strike, which prompted the return back to the airport.
Quick Turnaround on Checks & Fixes…
Data from RadarBox shows that TC-AIS remained grounded for less than 24 hours after the incident.
The necessary checks by maintenance crews were made, with the damage appearing to be minimal.
This is due to the quick nature in getting the aircraft back into commercial service.
TC-AIS has since operated flights to Stockholm, Giza, Brussels & Izmir from Istanbul.
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