Lightning strike punches hand-sized holes in Brisbane Airport runway in rare event not seen in 30 years

A lightning strike punched several hand-sized holes into a runway at a major Australian airport, causing hour-long delays for travellers while emergency repairs were carried out.

The strike hit the centre of the western runway at Brisbane Airport at 3.11pm on Tuesday as severe thunderstorms with large hail, damaging winds and heavy rain battered southeast Queensland.

WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: Lightning strike damages Brisbane Airport runway

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According to Brisbane Airport, a strike like this on the tarmac is extremely rare and hasn’t happened at the airport in at least the last 30 years.

Engineers assessed the damage before cutting out the affected sections and re-asphalting the runway overnight to fill the hand-sized holes.

Lightning strikes Brisbane Airport during Tuesday afternoon’s storm, damaging the western runway. Credit: Brisbane Airportand-sized holes in the tarmac caused by a lightning strike on Brisbane Airport’s western runway on Tuesday afternoon during severe thunderstorms. Credit: Brisbane Airport

The western runway was closed for about eight hours.

“The crews have done a fantastic job working all night to get the runway reopened for this morning and its business as usual for brisbane airport today,” Head of Facilities Rod Macbeth said.

The airport remained open throughout the repairs, with flights continuing to take off and land using the eastern runway.

Be the first to know: Add 7NEWS as your preferred news source on GoogleBrisbane Airport Head of Facilities Rod Macbeth praised crews for working through the night to repair the damaged runway and reopen it before Wednesday morning. Credit: Brisbane AirportAirport crews work overnight to repair damage caused by a lightning strike on the western runway. Credit: Brisbane Airport

While there were no flight cancellations reported in the airport’s broadcast update, some passengers described significant disruption, including delays and overnight accommodation after their flights were affected.

Meddy Barr was waiting for her flight to depart when the lightning struck, she wrote in a social media post.

“We were in the terminal when the lightning hit.

“It sounds like a bomb went off.

“We have now been put up in a hotel and our flight moved to tomorrow morning.”

Another traveller, Merita Thorley, said her plane from Townsville was “currently doing circles above Brisbane” as its landing was delayed by 50 minutes.

She later reported a “huge line of people waiting for accommodation tonight”.

The western runway reopened just in time on Wednesday morning for aviation enthusiasts to watch a rare Russian-designed Silk Way Airlines Il-76 cargo plane land at Brisbane International Airport in rainy conditions.

A Silk Way Airlines Il-76 cargo plane lands at Brisbane International Airport on Wednesday morning. Credit: Arun Kannan