[IROC]

One of the coolest things I have ever seen was as a passenger in a 767 taking off out of Denver one very nasty summer afternoon, the plane was climbing and just about to enter a very distinct cloud layer. About probably a quarter of a mile or so directly off to the side of the plane I witnessed a bolt of lightning come down out of the cloud and strike the ground below us. I could actually see the lightning hitting the gound below me. Amazing. That's the roughest flight I've ever been on, BTW, I've never seen a 767 thrown around like that. Stuff was coming out of the overheads and everything...

Also, once when we were climbing out of Atlanta during a summer thunderstorm our plane (MD-80 type) was hit by lightning. The pilot was actually on the intercom telling us that we were going to try and climb above the storm when the lightning hit. It sounded like a bomb going off and it looked as if giant flashbulbs went off simultaneously in every window of the plane. The aircraft interior lights (and the intercom, needless to say) went off at this point...

After a few very nervous minutes, the pilot came back on and apologized for flying right thru the center of a thunderstorm.

Mike