- The stunning images were captured by an off-duty pilot as he sat at the back of a Boeing 767-300 aircraft
- The plane was flying over the Amazon rainforest en route to Europe when the stormy weather struck
- In a series of images, a great Cumulonimbus cloud can be seen with a storm erupting through the sky
If you’re a fearful flier than these electrifying images of a lightning storm outside an aeroplane window are set to fill you with dread.
Off-duty pilot Santiago Borja Lopez captured the terrifying moment a bolt of lightning struck through the night sky over the Amazon rainforest.
The powerful shot shows a flash of white illuminating the inky-dark sky, with a sea of clouds ballooning around it.
Based in Quito, Ecuador, his work for a major South American airline often involves flying over regions that experience amazing natural phenomenon.
Mr Borja said he had ‘never seen lightning like it’ before and incredibly he had his camera out at just the right time.
The pilot was flying on a commercial Boeing 767-300ER en route to Europe when the lightning suddenly struck.
During the flight Mr Borja also captured a range of other images, showing voluminous clouds which he said ‘looked like a nuclear explosion’.
In images from other flights, the pilot captured menacing looking multi-level clouds, extending high into the sky in towers or plumes.
Otherwise known as thunderclouds, cumulonimbus are the only cloud type that can produce hail, thunder and lightning.
The base of the cloud is often flat with a very dark wall like feature hanging underneath, and may only lie a few hundred feet above the Earth’s surface.
Cumulonimbus clouds are created through convection, often growing from small cumulus clouds over a hot surface.
They get increasingly big until they represent huge powerhouses, storing the same amount of energy as 10 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs.
Although a storm he photographed in Panama looks formidable, Mr Borja said that he never felt frightened while travelling past it.
He has previously said: ‘These days aircraft have advanced equipment to circle around storms this big without entering any dangerous zones.
‘The storm may look close but it was actually several miles away.
‘We did not even experience any turbulence the entire flight due to this storm – it was so easy to see and avoid that we circled around it very easily.
Describing the Panama pictures, he added: ‘I felt a great sensation of admiration and respect as I took the photographs, you can feel the great power of the storm as it continuously flashes out the entire sky around it.
‘It is purely illuminated by a single lightning generated inside the storm. The rest of the time it is so dark you cannot see anything but a few stars.’
Mr Borja started capturing his in-flight experiences some time ago. His voyages are documented via Instagram and his website. He now carries his camera everywhere, just to get the perfect shot when it strikes.
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