The Invercargill businessman was heading to a conference in Wellington when Air New Zealand’s Dash Q300 aircraft was struck by lightning about 7am, yesterday.
"I thought the engine had blown up.
"A bang of that magnitude, I’ve never experienced anything like it."
He looked to the person sitting next to him and saw panic in their eyes, as the smell of smoke made its way throughout the plane.
Air hostesses began to talk among themselves while passengers anxiously awaited an announcement.
They were told it was a lightning strike and the plane would be heading back to Invercargill Airport.
"Your mind starts to make up scenarios like ‘What if something goes wrong when we’re landing?"’ he said.
While there was "no doubt" passengers got a fright, the mood was mainly calm, he said.
"I just continued to read the Koru magazine. There’s nothing you can really do about it."
When the plane landed safely, they were told there had been some damage to the nose of the plane and airport staff would have to assess how much.
"It was a little bit of an unusual start to the day ... This is a flight I would have preferred to miss," he said, with a laugh.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman confirmed the aircraft would be assessed by engineers.
