Terrifying moment lightning strikes Boeing 777 just seconds after takeoff

If you're even a little bit nervous about flying, you definitely won't want to watch this viral video.

The jaw-dropping footage shows a plane starting its ascent as normal, only to be dramatically hit by a bolt of lightning.

The plane in question was an Air Canada Boeing 777, taking off from Vancouver International Airport on the way to London Heathrow on a stormy night last weekend.

As it started its ascent after takeoff, an onlooker managed to capture astounding footage of the plane being hit by a massive flash of lightning, travelling straight through the body of the plane.

A local student pilot called Ethan West filmed the moment. He told CityNews Vancouver he wasn't expecting to capture anything so unbelievable, but was just aiming to get a clip of the plane's engine noise.

"I saw that there was a 777-300 taking off that was going to be heading for London Heathrow, and the 777 is one of my favorite aircraft and is like the largest twin-engine aircraft in the world, so I thought it'd be interesting to snap a quick video of it because it's super loud," he said.

But he ended up getting a lot more than he bargained for - and the footage, posted to X (formerly Twitter) has unsurprisingly been going viral, racking up nearly 980k views.

Amazingly, the plane seems to completely shrug the lightning off - although this perhaps shouldn't come as a shock. After all, with the sky's weather being hard to predict, it makes sense that passenger jets would need to be able to withstand any lightning storms they might fly through.

The jet was reportedly inspected on arrival at Heathrow and passed all its checks - and while this might be reassuring, people are still pretty freaked out by the footage on X.

One wrote: "I’ve heard them say it’s not dangerous to the plane and I’m a frequent flyer with well over a million miles and several go-around thrills, but I think I’d just as soon skip this experience."

Another agreed: "Crazy. I just saw this. I heard it doesn't harm the plane but it looks scary as heck."

We can't disagree with that, but the fact that no repairs are required after a plane is hit by lightning comes in stark contrast to another viral clip showing what happens when a Prius is the unlucky victim instead.

In that case, the car was completely disabled and its antenna blasted into oblivion, so it just goes to show that a plane might be a safer refuge in a lightning storm.