A British Airways plane was struck by lightning on its way into Heathrow Airport forcing the flight to be diverted.

Passengers onboard Flight BA919 from Stuttgart to Heathrow told of their ‘shock’ after the dramatic incident which forced crews to divert to Gatwick.

The flight left Germany just after 1pm local time (12pm BST) and was due to land at Heathrow at 1.40pm. 

The BA flight from Stuttgart to Heathrow was forced to divert to Gatwick after it was hit by a lightning bolt, according to the Sun.

Passenger Robert Rossall, who was returning from a trip to Germany for the Euros, praised the response by the captain and his crew, telling MailOnline: ‘The captain made a decision to land at the safer airport given the conditions and lightning strike. 

‘Once on the tarmac, he was informative and even walked the length of the plane to talk to all passengers. The cabin crew passed around bottled water and were calming. [It was] very professionally handled.’

The diverted flight arrived just under an hour late at Gatwick at 2.24pm this afternoon.

A spokesman for British Airways said: ‘BA919 diverted to Gatwick earlier this afternoon due to weather-related conditions in the region.

‘The flight landed just before 2pm. Customers were driven from Gatwick to Heathrow.’