Update: Middle East Airlines issued the below clarification

تداولت بعض المواقع الالكترونية خبر مضخم حول الرحلة المتوجهة من إسطنبول إلى بيروت لذا يهم شركة طيران الشرق الاوسط ان توضح ما يلي:

“ان طائرة الشركة قد تعرضت لصاعقة ناتجة عن سوء الاحوال الجوية في منطقة شمال تركيا، وهذه الامور تواجه الطائرات عادة في مثل هذه الاحوال الجوية السيئة، ويهم الشركة ان توضح ان جميع طائراتها مجهزة للحماية من الصواعق الكهربائية، وبالتالي لم تواجه الطائرة اي عطل كهربائي او فني، كما وانها لم تتعرض لاي مخاطر تتعلق بالسلامة كما جاء في الخبر الذي ورد حول هذا الامر.

ويهم شركة طيران الشرق الاوسط ان توضح ايضا ان قائد الطائرة طمأن الركاب وان عملية هبوط الطائرة تمت بشكل عادي جدا في المطار

Update2: A passenger also told Lebanonfiles that most of the information they posted was incorrect but they deleted his comment.

I was on my way back from a party yesterday when my friend texted me that there are news of a MEA Flight coming from Turkey exploding. At first, I thought that a plane had crashed or something and I started looking for updates online but then I got a link to the original story.

What happened is that a MEA flight coming from Turkey was struck by lightning and passengers freaked out after hearing a loud noise. The pilot re-assured them that this is a normal incident due to the bad weather conditions and that they might face some turbulence along the way. He re-assured passengers that that everything was under control and ended up landing the plane safely.

I know that this must have be a frightening flight for those on board, and I would have probably panicked like everyone else, but what I don’t get is why anyone would mention in the title that there was an explosion on the plane “خاص: رحلة الموت من تركيا الى بيروت… طائرة للميدل إيست تتعرض لصاعقة وانفجار” or let people panic over a lightning strike.

They could have easily said that a MEA Pilot saved the day after plane got hit by lightning and then explain what happened.