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Airport Lightning Strike: Flights Resume At BWI

By Dan Evon
Published on: 14:43 PST, Sep 12, 2013

An airport lightning strike caused havoc in Baltimore today.

The Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport was temporarily shut down after a bolt of lightning hit the control tower. Thousands of travelers were stranded and one air traffic controller was left with a serious shock.

Steve Sarkady, a passenger who was scheduled to fly out of Baltimore today, said:

“We heard a couple loud booms around the airport.. It actually felt like it hit the plane.”

According to the Baltimore Sun, lightning stuck the tower at about 2:30 this afternoon as an unidentified employee was turning on a generator. The employee was taken to the hospital after the incident. He has since been released.

After the lightning strike authorities decided to shut down the control tower in order to prevent future injuries. BWI was shut down for about three hours.

John Dunkerly, president of BWI’s chapter of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said that he has never heard of such an incident during his 30 year career.

Dunkerly said:

“We didn’t have any idea why it happened. Usually [the towers] are pretty safe during these storms.”

Flights resumed in and out of BWI at about 5 pm today. The FAA said that the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control center took control of air traffic at the Baltimore airport.

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