Edinburgh plane diverted to Prestwick after being hit by lightning A Ryanair flight was diverted to Glasgow Prestwick Airport on Tuesday evening after being struck by lightning shortly after it took off from Edinburgh Airport. The flight, FR5579, took off heading to Alicante as scheduled but was diverted to Prestwick after transmitting an emergency code. The plane landed safely at 7.20pm and, after being checked by engineers, took off again at 9pm and continued to Spain. Nobody was injured in the incident. A spokesman for Ryanair said: "The Ryanair flight from Edinburgh to Alicante was struck by lightning shortly after taking off from Edinburgh this evening. Following Ryanair procedure, it was diverted into the nearest available airport, which was Glasgow Prestwick - where Ryanair engineers inspected the aircraft. It continued to Alicante after being cleared to return to service. Ryanair apologises to passengers effected by the short delay however we the safety of our crew and passengers is our top priority. The incident came on the day that thunderstorms and torrential rain swept across Scotland following a lengthy spell of fine dry weather.