THIS is the moment a British Airways plane was dramatically struck by lightning as devastating floods wreak havoc across Brazil’s largest city.
The Airbus A350 was parked at São Paulo’s Guarulhos International Airport when it was directly hit on its vertical stabilizer during a massive storm.
Incredible footage from Friday shows the electrifying moment as the lightning bolt connected to the fuselage for several seconds.
The plane, en route to London Heathrow, was delayed for inspections, while 21 other flights were redirected due to the severe weather.
Despite the shocking scenes, aviation experts confirmed to Brazilian media that lightning strikes on planes are common and generally harmless.
That’s thanks to advanced safety features that shield passengers from electrical discharge.
Severe chaos struck São Paulo, a bustling city home to over 11 million people, when intense rainfall hit the area, unloading an entire month’s worth of rain in a matter of hours.
Streets turned into rivers, cars were swept away, and one resident was spotted navigating the floodwaters on a jet ski.
Public transport ground to a halt, with locals crowding subway stations to escape the torrential downpour.
By Friday evening, over 120,000 Enel customers were left without power, with outages affecting nearly 180,000 homes at the storm’s peak.
Gusting winds and lighting added to the destruction, leaving neighbourhoods submerged and sparking urgent alerts from the Civil Defence.
In an unprecedented move, city officials sent out emergency alerts via residents’ mobile phones, notifying them about the floods and advising them to find shelter immediately.
In the northern district of Vila Guilherme, part of the roof at the bustling Center Norte shopping mall collapsed under the weight of the rain.
Videos showed water cascading into the mall, forcing officials to cordon off sections for repairs, according to local outlet UOL.
Fortunately, no injuries were reported.
São Paulo has now entered a state of alert, with the city’s two major riverbanks threatened by rising waters.
The city remains braced for further impacts as thunderstorm season grips the region.
Brazil, a country previously known as the “lightning capital of the world,” often experiences severe thunderstorms in January, exacerbating the difficulties that locals encounter throughout the wet season.
It comes after “apocalyptic” floods caused massive destruction in the southern part of the country last year.
The heavy downpours in Rio Grande do Sul state cost the lives of at least 100 people while another 130 were missing.
The floods affected some 400 municipalities causing a great deal of destruction across the state leaving 230,000 residents displaced.
Rescue efforts had to be halted as forecasters kept predicting more rain and strong winds as days went by.
The floods, which ravaged the state last May, saw hundreds of houses submerged, with only their roofs visible as locals were using small boards and surfboards to move around.
It also destroyed major highways, bridges, airports and even football stadiums.
The state’s capital city Porto Alegre alone is home to about 1.4 million people, and authorities estimate it will cost up to £745 million to clean up the damage.
