Bolt in the blue meeting after lightning strike
Alistair Munro
A freak lightning strike led to an air emergency and a bolt in the blue meeting with a ‘football legend’ for broadcaster Davie Gardiner and his sons.
The former music development officer for Shetland Arts, now working as a locations manager for TV and film productions – including the popular crime series Shetland originally written by Anne Cleeves– encountered an emergency on a flight from Manchester to Aberdeen after the plane’s cockpit window was struck by lightning.
During the “turbulent flight” Davie and his sons Michael and Richie, all massive football fans, got in a friendly chat with a fellow passenger – Sam Allardyce, the former England manager.
Davie said: “It’s not every day you and your sons’ flight gets hit (and damaged) by lightning and, as a result, you find yourselves in an emergency situation while sitting next to the football legend who is ‘Big’ Sam Allardyce.
“An already memorable trip to Manchester ended being more memorable still. Thankfully the flight landed safely too. Well done the Loganair pilots, cabin staff and ground crew.”
Davie told The Shetland Times after the incident on Wednesday: “We’d been in Manchester for the Manchester City v Nottingham Forest game on Wednesday night as my youngest son, Richie, had bought my eldest son Michael a hospitality package for the match.
“We’d had a great time at the event and in the city in general and were heading home – flying first to Aberdeen from Manchester and then home on the last flight at night from there.
“It was a wet and windy night in Manchester and shortly after take off we got pretty seriously buffeted by turbulence which seemed to last a long time.
“Usually it disappears when you get above the clouds, but not on this occasion. Also I noticed that the pilot was both revving and throttling back the engine an awful lot during this time and thought that was strange but wasn’t particularly worried.”
“Anyway the buffeting/turbulance continued and then when that settled down a bit the pilot came on to tell us he had declared an emergency due to the plane being hit by lightening and one of the cockpit windows having shattered as a result of that.
“He did assure us everything was under control though and he hoped to have us on the ground in under 10 mins. Unlike some of the stories in the national press there we no signs of terrified passengers or any signs of panic of any kind.
“The passengers all simply went very quiet until we were actually back on the ground where a lot of blue lights were in evidence.
“Anyway, as we were checking in my eldest son Michael thought that a guy in the checking in line looked like Sam Allardyce.
“It turned out it was him and that he was actually sitting next to us on the plane. As the drama unfolded we got talking to him a bit and he was very friendly.
“We told him we had been down for the match and that got the conversation going re football. Once on the ground we all went to collect our bags and I took the chance to ask him for a photo given things had been quite friendly on the flight.
“He agreed to that but presumably he’d had enough for one day because as far as I know he simply collected his bags and went home ha ha.”
Allardyce had apparently been due to attend a dinner speech in Aberdeen.
Davie add: “So, even with all the tension and drama, it was quite a good way to see the flight through being in the company of a football legend.
“Loganair secured another aircraft for us later that evening and few us on to Aberdeen and had us into a hotel by midnight and on the red eye to Shetland next morning. A short night – and trip in general – but a memorable one.”
