New kind of space blast seen not far from Earth By Reuters February 24, 2006, 5:16 AM PST A new kind of cosmic explosion has been spotted in Earth's celestial neighborhood, and amateur astronomers in the Northern Hemisphere might be able to see it next week, scientists reported Thursday. The blast seemed a lot like a gamma ray burst, the most distant and powerful type of explosion known to astronomers. But when scientists first detected it with NASA's Swift satellite on Feb. 18, the explosion was about 25 times closer and lasted 100 times longer than a typical gamma ray burst. "This is totally new, totally unexpected," said Neil Gehrels, Swift's principal investigator. "This is the type of unscripted event in our nearby universe that we hoped Swift could catch." The explosion originated in a star-forming galaxy about 440 million light-years away toward the constellation Aries (the Ram). A light-year is about 6 trillion miles, the distance light travels in a year. This would be the second-closest gamma ray burst ever detected, if indeed it is one. The burst lasted for nearly 2,000 seconds, or about 33 minutes, astronomers said in a statement. Most bursts last a few milliseconds to tens of seconds. It also was surprisingly dim. Scientists at Italy's National Institute for Astrophysics found hints of a budding supernova, or exploding star, when they saw the afterglow from the original explosion grow brighter in optical light. If it is a supernova, scientists will have an unprecedented view of one from start to finish. Scientists will attempt observations with the Hubble Space Telescope and Chandra X-ray Observatory. Amateur astronomers in dark skies might be able to see the explosion with a 16-inch (40-centimeter) telescope. More information and images are available on NASA's Web site. Comment: This, along with today's story about the new comet that was spotted in January, deserve some discussion. The possible supernova was remarkable for its closeness and duration - lasting 33 seconds. It is located right under the foot of Perseus in the constellation Aries. See here for map. Fulcanelli, writing in Mystery of the Cathedrals, mentions Aries in this way: “Alchemy is obscure only because it is hidden. The philosophers who wanted to transmit the exposition of their doctrine and the fruit of their labors to posterity took great care not to divulge the art by presenting it under a common form so that the layman could not misuse it. Thus because of the difficulty one has of understanding it, because of the mystery of its enigmas and of the opacity of its parables, the science has come to be shut up among reveries, illusions and chimeras. […] “With their confused texts, sprinkled with cabalistic expressions, the books remain the efficient and genuine cause of the gross mistake that we indicate. For, in spite of the warnings... students persisted in reading them according to the meanings that they hold in ordinary language. They do not know that these texts are reserved for initiates, and that it is essential, in order to understand them, to be in possession of their secret key. One must first work at discovering this key. “Most certainly these old treatises contain, if not the entire science, at least its philosophy, its principles, and the art of applying them in conformity with natural laws. But if we are unaware of the hidden meaning of the terms - for example, the meaning of Ares, which is different from Aries - strange qualifications purposely used in the composition of such works, we will understand nothing of them or we will be infallibly led into error. The comet story is interesting because one of the astronomers that is referenced is one "Andrew Pearce". Now the word "Pearce" or variations of that word has been popping up in our investigations over the past several years. The clue was initially given in 1997: A: Devour newspapers for any recent news re: Percy. Most recently we noted that it was Percy Hospital in Paris where Yasser Arafat was taken to die. A comment from a session around that time is interesting: Q: Was there any symbolic meaning to the death of Arafat at Percy Hospital, with the number 11 appearing at the time A: Like Diana, a marker. Interestingly, through the Gaelic language we relate Percy to Perch and then to March. March 5th happens to be the day when the new-found comet makes it's closest pass to earth. The Andrew Pearce mentioned in the news story about the comet happens to be the same person who, in 2004, made history by being the 5th person to see a comet with the naked eye in one year. Never before had 5 comets been seen with the naked eye in one year. Which sort of suggests there are more of them up there, and they are kind of closer than normal. Then there is the following which ties together 'nicely' the ideas of comets and supernovas. September 12, 1998 On the subject of supernovas; I have discovered that three of the supernovas of antiquity which have been discovered and time estimated by the remnants, if they were not observed, occurred in or near Cassiopeia at very interesting points in history. A: Yes... Q: (L) Well, one of these periods in history was around 1054. This is a very interesting time. It just so happens that there are no European records of this supernova which was recorded by the Chinese, Japanese, and perhaps even the Koreans. Yet, there are no European records. What happened to the European records? A: Europe was in a "recovery mode" at the "time." Q: (L) Recovery from what? A: Loss of civilized structure due to overhead cometary explosion in 564 AD. Q: (C) There were certain historical facts you picked up, so that doesn't make sense to me. (L) On the other hand it might, because there is some stuff from Gregory of Tours that is real bizarre. What effect did this have on the civilized structure? Was it a direct effect in terms of material, or did it have effects on people causing them to behave in an uncivilized and barbaric way? A: Well, the burning fragmentary shower ignited much of the land areas in what you now refer to as Western Europe. This had the results you can imagine, causing the resulting societal breakdown you now refer to as "The Dark Ages." Q: (L) Well, it damn sure was dark. There is almost a thousand years that nobody knows anything about! A: Check Irish or Celtic, and French or Gallic records of the era for clues. There were temporary "islands of survival," lasting just long enough for the written word to eke out. Q: (L) Okay, when reading about the Great Nebula in Orion, there is a kite shaped area adjacent to the Horsehead Nebula. I wondered if there was any relation between this and your previous mention of kites. Are we looking at something in that particular area of the sky that is going to go supernova? A: For supernova, look to the "foot." Just some food for thought. :-)

See it Now: New Comet Brightens Rapidly By Joe Rao SPACE.com Skywatching Columnist posted: 24 February 2006 During the next couple of weeks skywatchers will be turning their attention to a newly discovered comet that has just swept past the Sun and will soon cruise past Earth on its way back out toward the depths of the outer solar system. Astronomers, who attempt to forecast the future characteristics and behavior of these cosmic vagabonds, have found this new object to be a better-than-average performer. The comet is now visible with a simple pair of binoculars, and it's also dimly visible to the naked eye if you know precisely where to look. The discovery The first word about this new comet (catalogued as C/2006 A1) came from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, Cambridge, Massachusetts, which serves as the clearinghouse in the United States for astronomical discoveries. The SAO also serves in that capacity as an agency of the International Astronomical Union. On Jan. 2, Grzegorz Pojmanski at the Warsaw University Astronomical Observatory discovered a faint comet on a photograph that was taken on New Year's Day from the Las Campanas Observatory in La Serena, Chile, as part of the All Sky Automated Survey (ASAS). A confirmation photograph was taken on Jan. 4. Later a prediscovery image of the comet dating back to Dec. 29, 2005 was also found. Interestingly, about seven hours after Pojmanski detected the comet, another astronomer, Dr. Kazimieras Cernis at the Institute of Theoretical Physics and Astronomy at Vilnius, Lithuania, spotted it on ultraviolet images taken a few days earlier from the SOHO satellite. Despite this, however, the comet bears only Pojmanski's name. Getting closer A preliminary orbit for the new comet was quickly calculated. At the time of its discovery, the comet was about 113 million miles (181 million kilometers) from the Sun. But orbital elements indicated that on Feb. 22 it would be passing closest to the Sun (called "perihelion") at a distance of 51.6 million miles-not quite half the Earth's average distance from the Sun. At the time of its discovery, the comet shone at a feeble magnitude of roughly 11 to 12, which is about 100 times dimmer than the faintest stars that can be perceived with the unaided eye. In addition, Comet Pojmanski was buried in the deep southern part of the sky, among the stars of the constellation of Indus (the Indian), and accessible only to observers in the Southern Hemisphere. But since its discovery, the comet has steadily been progressing on a northward path. Finally, the comet is becoming poised for visibility for Northern Hemisphere skywatchers, and it is expected to put on its best showing during the last days of February and the first week of March in the dawn morning sky. What to expect Preliminary predictions indicated that the comet would dutifully brighten as it approached the Sun. At perihelion, the most optimistic forecasts had Comet Pojmanski attaining a magnitude of +6.5 (generally considered the threshold of naked-eye visibility). The comet had other plans, however, and has been increasing in brightness at a much faster pace. On Feb. 7, Andrew Pearce, observing from Nedlands in Western Australia, caught the comet already shining at magnitude +6.4. "This comet appears to be brightening rapidly," noted Mr. Pearce, adding that a faint tail was also becoming visible. Twelve days later, the comet had brightened nearly a full magnitude, according to Mr. Pearce, reaching +5.4. On February 20, Luis Mansilla at the Canopus Observatory in Rosario, Argentina was able to see the comet in 7x50 binoculars despite interference from the Moon and haze near the horizon. He estimated its brightness at +5.3. Currently, Comet Pojmanski is shining at around magnitude 5, which is roughly about the same brightness as the faintest star in the bowl of the Little Dipper. Sharp-eyed observers in a dark, clear sky can actually glimpse it without any optical aid. The comet is located in the zodiacal constellation of Capricornus, the Sea Goat. Beginning Feb. 27, skywatchers in the Northern Hemisphere can try locating it, very low above the horizon, somewhat south of due east about 90 minutes before sunrise. You can use Venus as a guide on this morning: the comet will be situated roughly 7 degrees to the left and slightly below the brilliant planet (the width of your fist held at arm's length and projected against the sky is roughly equal to 10 degrees). As viewed from midnorthern latitudes, Comet Pojmanski will be positioned a little higher above the horizon each morning at the start of morning twilight. While it's only 5 degrees high on Feb. 27, this quickly improves to 10 degrees by March 2; 16 degrees by March 5 and 22 degrees (more than "two fists" up from the horizon) by March 9. What you can see In the early morning sky it can be readily picked up in binoculars looking like a small, circular patch of light with a bluish-white hue and an almost star-like center. The comet will passing closest to Earth on March 5, when it be 71.7 million miles (115.4 million kilometers) away. In small telescopes the comet's gaseous head or "coma" should appear roughly 1/6 of the Moon's apparent diameter as seen from Earth (an actual linear diameter of 209,000 miles or 335,000 kilometers). It will also likely display a short, faint narrow tail composed chiefly of ionized gases. Well-known comet expert, John E. Bortle of Stormville, New York compares the view of Comet Pojmanski to that of an "apple on a stick; typical of dust-poor comets." After March 5, the comet will be receding from both the Sun and Earth and rapidly fade as it heads back out into space, beyond the limits of the outer solar system.

Flashback: Mysterious High-Energy Bursts Linked to Supernova By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer 03 April 2002 Astronomers have detected signs of a supernova explosion and tied it to the output of even higher-energy radiation known as a gamma-ray burst. The discovery adds to evidence that suggests supernovae and gamma-ray bursts sometimes are linked. Gamma-ray bursts, or GRBs as they are called, have remained largely mysterious since their discovery in the 1960s. They pack the electromagnetic output of many galaxies into a single flash that lasts seconds or less. If one occurred nearby, it could destroy life on Earth. Most GRBs originate outside our galaxy, however. The bursts are difficult to study because of their short duration and distant origin, and researchers still are not sure what causes them. The new study, which will be reported in the April 4 issue of the journal Nature, found hot gas containing elements such as magnesium, silicon and sulfur, which are common products of a supernova, an explosion that marks the end of a massive star's life. The gas was streaming outward from a known GRB site at one-tenth the speed of light. James Reeves of the University of Leicester, UK, led the study. Reeves explained what he figures is going on, a scenario that other researchers have described previously: As massive star nears the end of its life, it casts huge amounts of material into space. In a grand finale, a bubble of hot gas explodes outward. Material that's left behind is thought to collapse into a black hole. The whole mess rotates, and two jets of gamma rays and other emissions are shot out in opposite directions, along the axis of rotation. "Eventually, the hot fireball from the [supernova] burst catches up with the dense material [previously] ejected from the massive progenitor star," Reeves said. "This material is heated up and produces the X-ray emission from those elements that we see in our observations." Importantly, Reeves and his colleagues did not detect iron, as might have been suspected in the wake of a supernova. This is likely because there had not been enough time for iron to form via radioactive decay, he said, implying that the time between the supernova and the GRB is very short. "The new results strengthen the link between GRBs and supernovae, and favor models where the GRB occurs within a few days after the supernova," said Herman Marshall of MIT, in writing an analysis of the paper for the journal. The findings are supported, Marshall said, by other recent detections of iron in the X-ray afterglows of gamma-ray bursts. These earlier observations, made by NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and the XMM-Newton, were not conclusive on their own. The new study used data collected by the Italian-run BeppoSAX satellite and the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton.

Flashback: Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth By Robert Roy Britt Senior Science Writer posted: 18 February, 2005 "Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and possibly have triggered a mass extinction," said Bryan Gaensler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). ~**~ A huge explosion halfway across the galaxy packed so much power it briefly altered Earth's upper atmosphere in December, astronomers said Friday. No known eruption beyond our solar system has ever appeared as bright upon arrival. But you could not have seen it, unless you can top the X-ray vision of Superman: In gamma rays, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moon's reflected visible light. The blast originated about 50,000 light-years away and was detected Dec. 27. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year, about 6 trillion miles (10 trillion kilometers). The commotion was caused by a special variety of neutron star known as a magnetar. These fast-spinning, compact stellar corpses -- no larger than a big city -- create intense magnetic fields that trigger explosions. The blast was 100 times more powerful than any other similar eruption witnessed, said David Palmer of Los Alamos National Laboratory, one of several researchers around the world who monitored the event with various telescopes. "Had this happened within 10 light-years of us, it would have severely damaged our atmosphere and possibly have triggered a mass extinction," said Bryan Gaensler of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). There are no magnetars close enough to worry about, however, Gaensler and two other astronomers told SPACE.com. But the strength of the tempest has them marveling over the dying star's capabilities while also wondering if major species die-offs in the past might have been triggered by stellar explosions. 'Once-in-a-lifetime' The Sun is a middle-aged star about 8 light-minutes from us. Its tantrums, though cosmically pitiful compared to the magnetar explosion, routinely squish Earth's protective magnetic field and alter our atmosphere, lighting up the night sky with colorful lights called aurora. Solar storms also alter the shape of Earth's ionosphere, a region of the atmosphere 50 miles (80 kilometers) up where gas is so thin that electrons can be stripped from atoms and molecules -- they are ionized -- and roam free for short periods. Fluctuations in solar radiation cause the ionosphere to expand and contract. "The gamma rays hit the ionosphere and created more ionization, briefly expanding the ionosphere," said Neil Gehrels, lead scientist for NASA's gamma-ray watching Swift observatory. Gehrels said in an email interview that the effect was similar to a solar-induced disruption but that the effect was "much smaller than a big solar flare." Still, scientists were surprised that a magnetar so far away could alter the ionosphere. "That it can reach out and tap us on the shoulder like this, reminds us that we really are linked to the cosmos," said Phil Wilkinson of IPS Australia, that country's space weather service. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime event," said Rob Fender of Southampton University in the UK. "We have observed an object only 20 kilometers across [12 miles], on the other side of our galaxy, releasing more energy in a tenth of a second than the Sun emits in 100,000 years." Some researchers have speculated that one or more known mass extinctions hundreds of millions of years ago might have been the result of a similar blast altering Earth's atmosphere. There is no firm data to support the idea, however. But astronomers say the Sun might have been closer to other stars in the past. A similar blast within 10 light-years of Earth "would destroy the ozone layer," according to a CfA statement, "causing abrupt climate change and mass extinctions due to increased radiation." The all-clear has been sounded, however. "None of the known sample [of magnetars] are closer than about 4,000-5,000 light years from us," Gaensler said. "This is a very safe distance." Cause a mystery Researchers don't know exactly why the burst was so incredible. The star, named SGR 1806-20, spins once on its axis every 7.5 seconds, and it is surrounded by a magnetic field more powerful than any other object in the universe. "We may be seeing a massive release of magnetic energy during a 'starquake' on the surface of the object," said Maura McLaughlin of the University of Manchester in the UK. Another possibility is that the magnetic field more or less snapped in a process scientists call magnetic reconnection. Gamma rays are the highest form of radiation on the electromagnetic spectrum, which includes X-rays, visible light and radio waves too. The eruption was also recorded by the National Science Foundation's Very Large Array of radio telescopes, along with other European satellites and telescopes in Australia. Explosive details A neutron star is the remnant of a star that was once several times more massive than the Sun. When their nuclear fuel is depleted, they explode as a supernova. The remaining dense core is slightly more massive than the Sun but has a diameter typically no more than 12 miles (20 kilometers). Millions of neutron stars fill the Milky Way galaxy. A dozen or so are ultra-magnetic neutron stars -- magnetars. The magnetic field around one is about 1,000 trillion gauss, strong enough to strip information from a credit card at a distance halfway to the Moon, scientists say. Of the known magnetars, four are called soft gamma repeaters, or SGRs, because they flare up randomly and release gamma rays. The flare on SGR 1806-20 unleashed about 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power. "The next biggest flare ever seen from any soft gamma repeater was peanuts compared to this incredible Dec. 27 event," said Gaensler of the CfA.

Flashback: Closest Known Neutron Star Races Across Sky 09 November 2000 A relatively small, dense object racing across the sky and heading our way at more than 100 times the speed of a Concorde jet has been identified as our solar system's closest known neutron star. The compact remains of an ancient explosion, less than 12 miles (19 kilometers) in diameter but 10 trillion times denser than steel, the neutron star zips along at roughly 240,000 miles per hour (108 kilometers per second). Most neutron stars are found in paired or binary star systems but this runaway object has broken free of its larger companion, giving astronomers a rare treat. "The scientific importance of this object lies in the fact that the neutron star is isolated," says Frederick M. Walter of the State University of New York in Stony Brook. Walter said the object is surprisingly hot, probably due to the fact that it is relatively young and still cooling off. "Since we know its approximate age, we can test how fast neutron stars cool off," Walter said. The object, first spotted in 1992, was confirmed to be a neutron star in 1996. But only now has its distance from Earth been determined, using data provided by the Hubble Space Telescope. The object, also described as the corpse of a star, currently is about 200 light-years away. It is due to pass by Earth in about 300,000 years, but will safely miss by about 170 light-years. Because the neutron star, called RX J185635-3754, is relatively nearby and all by itself, astronomers will be able to glean valuable information about star formation by studying it. Most neutron stars are hard to study as they are a billion or more light-years away. Researchers say that RX J185635-3754 was probably shot like a cannonball when its larger companion star exploded as a supernova a million years ago. The other star, now a hot blue star, has been seen racing in another direction. Calculations show that the two were likely orbiting each other before the explosion in a configuration known as a binary star system. The explosion would have been visible to our earthly ancestors in about 1 million B.C., scientists say. Supernova explosions are very complex and not well understood. Nor is the structure of a neutron star known in any detail. The results were presented November 9 at a meeting of the High-Energy Astrophysics Division of the American Astronomical Society in Honolulu. A paper on the finding will be published in the Astrophysical Journal.

What's 'Thundersnow'? Channel3000 Many Wisconsin residents are reporting instances of thunder and lightning as Thursday's winter storm sweeps through the state. Is that for real? WISC-TV meteorologist Karin Swanson has a description of this unusual weather phenomena. Swanson said that "thundersnow" is fairly uncommon. "This is something that occurs when we have a big snowstorm like this one," she said. "Typically, when we see/hear thundersnow, the thundersnow will be accompanied by heavy snow with high snowfall rates. "For instance, it isn't out of the question to get a good 2 to 3 inches of snow very quickly when we have thundersnow," she said. As for being dangerous, Swanson said, "It's just as dangerous as a summertime thunderstorm, and people should take the same types of precautions."

Flashback! Canadian winter returns with a vengeance CTV.ca News Staff 17 Feb 06 After a balmy January, winter is back with a vengeance. At least five people died in weather-related accidents Friday as freezing rain, wind and snowstorms battered a wide swathe of Canada. "It is wild out there. There's a lot of misery on the weather map from coast to coast to coast," said David Phillips, senior climatologist with Environment Canada. "We'd sent out search parties looking for winter and we finally found it, and it's here, and it's beginning to bite us deep and hard." The change in weather, from a warm Thursday with melting snow and rain to below freezing temperatures on Friday with high winds, caused the icy roads. "The weather models all indicated it would happen more gradually and it happened a lot faster," said Sgt. Rick Lavigne of the Ottawa police. "It sort of caught us off guard." Four die in Ontario In Ontario, the weather brought freezing rain, ice pellets, snow and the rare winter phenomenon of thunder and lightning forecasters call "thundersnow." A winter storm caused white-out conditions just east of Ottawa near the small town of Embrun on Highway 417. The bad road conditions caused 37 vehicles to slam into one another Police said as many four people died, while 40 people were injured, 11 of them with serious or critical injuries. Two of the dead were a father and his young daughter. Jason Baker was in one of the first cars involved in the pileup. "This one was the ultimate whiteout -- a wall of snow," Baker, 27, told The Canadian Press. Baker ran from his car as soon as he heard a loud bang. Firefighters on the scene said that may have saved his life, along with countless others who did the same. Provincial police Const. Dana Mellon acknowledged that the number of injured could grow because of the number of vehicles involved. "We were asking the public to try and stay off of these major highways . . .because of these blowing snow conditions, because it was just causing these whiteouts," Mellon said. "In the span of 20 years of policing and 14 in this area, I've never seen anything like this," OPP Const. Diana Hampson told CTV News. "The road is still closed. We'll be working well into the weekend on this crash to try and determine exactly what happened, what vehicles were involved and who was driving etc." West of Ottawa, near Arnprior, high winds and slick roads resulted in another pileup involving 30 vehicles, where five people were left with minor injuries. Police closed off several parts of the Trans-Canada Highway between Pembrooke, Ont. and Montreal because of various car pileups. Air travel was also disrupted in Ottawa as 71 people were stuck on the ground in a plane for more than six hours until Air Canada decided the plane could take off. An extreme cold weather alert was issued for Toronto Friday. High winds that reached as high as 59 km/h hit the city, causing delays at Pearson International Airport. Toronto Hydro was flooded with calls of homes without power as powerful winds brought down power lines and uprooted mature trees. Meanwhile, snow squalls north of Toronto made driving nearly impossible. Car pileup in Montreal Freezing rain and high winds caused a huge pileup on a highway 50 kilometres east of Montreal Friday afternoon. One man was killed and 40 people were injured after the chain-reaction accident involving as many as 60 cars. Two women were seriously injured and not every one had been rescued, police spokeswoman Manon Gaignard told CP. "People were still trapped in their vehicles," she said. Police closed a large stretch of the busy highway between Ottawa and Montreal and didn't expect it to reopen until Sunday. In Montreal, the wind gusts reached 110 km/h, blowing a roof off a school building, and causing a train to derail and dangle over a Montreal bridge. Meanwhile, about 119,000 homes were left without power throughout Quebec. On Friday, police implored people in Ontario and Quebec to stay off the icy, windy highways. Deep freeze in the Prairies Winter came back to the Prairies after the flow of warm air from the west stopped this week, said Environment Canada meteorologist Dale Marciski. "That flow has stopped, and been replaced by a more northerly flow," he told CP. "It's what happens every winter, it just didn't happen when it usually does this year." Environment Canada issued a wind-chill warning for most of southern Manitoba as overnight temperatures were expected to reach -45 C. In Winnipeg, hundreds of car batteries wouldn't start and some people flocked to the mall to buy extra winter gear as the day's high of -23 C combined with a wind chill that felt like a bone-numbing -36 C. The temperature in Calgary reached -20 C, while it was -50 C with the wind chill in Regina. According to Phillips, the weather is typical for an average Canadian winter. "All of this is a bit of a yawner from a weather point of view," said Phillips. "It's dramatic because it's so sudden." Winds gusts of up to 90 kilometres per hour are expected to sweep across New Brunswick and the rest of Atlantic Canada as the weather system that hit Ontario and Quebec moved east. Environment Canada is forecasting that the bitterly cold weather will remain across the country for at least the next 10 days. U.S. storm kills two A fierce storm also swept across the midwestern United States and into the northeast Friday, causing temperatures to dive and winds to reach as high as 124 km/h. In western New York, temperatures dropped from close to 15 C to below freezing within several hours. High winds knocked out power to more than 200,000 homes and offices. Schools were also closed. The winter freeze went east after battering the midwest U.S. Thursday. About 100,000 customers in Michigan were still without power Friday after 97 km/h winds blew through the state. Some homes and businesses are expected to be without power until Sunday.

Holidaymaker standed after 'lightning strikes four planes' nlnews.co.uk 23 February 2006 A RETIRED holidaymaker from Highgate on a birthday trip to Spain was among hundreds stranded overnight after four Ryanair plans were struck by lightning. Michael Harrington, 60, of Stanhope Road, and his family were asked to get off the flight from Santander to Stansted on Sunday after being told the plane had been struck by lightning and needed to be checked over. In the terminal, the family's American friends travelling to Frankfurt and a group of Italians returning to Rome were also told their flights had been delayed as a result of lightning strikes. It later emerged another plane had been diverted because of the inward bound strikes. But Mr Harrington said: "We couldn't believe lightning would strike Ryanair plans as opposed to anybody else." He said the airport had released a statement putting the delay down to "operational problems within the company". The family, including wife Mary, and children Kate, 26, who had given him the 60th birthday trip, and son Peter, 24, flew out on Monday afternoon - more than 24 hours later. Ryanair has insisted the planes were struck by lightning and that the flights to Rome and Stansted had to be cancelled because the planes needed overnight inspection and repair.