The Ball of Light That Floated Down the Aisle
On a night flight through a storm, a physicist watched a glowing ball the size of a football come out of the cockpit and drift down the aisle.
What was reported
In March 1963, Roger Jennison, a British physicist, was on an Eastern Airlines night flight from New York to Washington during a thunderstorm. After the plane was hit by lightning, he saw a glowing sphere, about 20 centimetres across and blue-white, emerge from the cockpit and float slowly down the centre aisle, about a metre above the floor.
It passed close by him and disappeared towards the rear of the plane. He published his account in the scientific journal Nature in 1969.
Explanations offered
Jennison's account, from a trained scientist, became one of the most often cited reports of ball lightning, a rare phenomenon that many scientists once doubted. Its cause is still debated, with theories ranging from burning silicon vapour to microwave effects, and it has proved very hard to study.
- When
- March 1963
- Where
- On a night flight from New York, USA
- Witnesses
- A physicist and other passengers on a night flight
- Status
- Probably ball lightning
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.
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