A lightning strike left a cluster of holes, some about the size of a palm, in the western runway at Brisbane Airport on Tuesday afternoon, closing it for more than eight hours, the Sydney Morning Herald reports.
The strike hit at about 3.11pm. Engineers cut out the damaged sections and laid new asphalt, and the runway reopened shortly before midnight. An airport spokesman said lightning was common around the site but damage like this was rare, adding that a long-serving runway manager had never seen anything similar.
Flights continued on the eastern runway, with average delays of 48 minutes during the storms, and none were cancelled. Severe storms swept south-east Queensland from about 1pm, bringing large hail to the Gold Coast and Ipswich along with damaging winds and heavy rain.
Source: Sydney Morning Herald
