Earlier this month, a Wizz Air flight bound for Eindhoven suffered a lightning strike in Katowice, prompting an emergency return to the Polish airport.
Information has been released pertinent to the incident at hand, which we will get into in this article.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
Wizz Air Flight W61071 – Katowice to Eindhoven…
Wizz Air flight W61071, which suffered the lightning strike, is a routine scheduled flight between Katowice and Eindhoven.
Furthermore, the aircraft involved in the incident was HA-LYF.
As per data from Planespotters.net, HA-LYF is a 10.2 year old Airbus A320ceo that was delivered to the airline back in July 2014.
Of the A320ceo variant, the Hungarian AOC has 22 of them in their fleet.
Moreover, of that 22, all of them are in active service, with an average fleet age of 12.2 years.
Other aircraft in the Hungarian AOC of Wizz Air include:
- 77 Airbus A321s.
- 1 Airbus A330.
Wizz Air flight W61071, which suffered the lightning strike, departed Katowice at 1108 local time on August 21, bound for Eindhoven.
Near the Wroclaw area, the aircraft made a u-turn and proceeded to make a return to the Polish airport.
After 59 minutes in the air, the aircraft landed safely without further incident.
Furthermore, as per The Aviation Herald, it is understood this was due to a lightning strike after stopping their climb at 35,000 feet.
Aircraft Grounded For Three Days…
Following the lightning strike on Wizz Air flight W61071 Katowice-Eindhoven, HA-LYF was grounded for three days.
The aircraft re-entered commercial service on August 24 after repositioning over to Debrecen.
No additional issues have been reported with the aircraft following the lightning strike.
As soon as we have more information pertinent to the incident, then we will update you accordingly.
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