Edinburgh-to-Alicante plane diverted to Prestwick after lightning strike

A holiday flight to Alicante was struck by lightning shortly after taking off from Edinburgh Airport on Tuesday night.

The Ryanair flight was diverted to Glasgow Prestwick airport where it landed at around 7.20pm.

The aircraft was checked by engineers before leaving for the Spanish city again at 9pm.

A spokesman for Ryanair said: “A Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Alicante was struck by lightning shortly after take-off from Edinburgh this evening and following Ryanair procedure, diverted into the nearest available airport, where Ryanair engineers inspected the aircraft and cleared it to return to service, departing for Alicante a short time later.

“Ryanair sincerely apologises to passengers affected by this short delay, however the safety of our passengers, crew and aircraft is our number one priority.”