Flash of inspiration wins Star Witness contest
Photograph which appears to show a bolt of lightning strike a plane wins our monthly Star Witness competition.
"It was probably a one in a million chance. It's pointless me doing the lottery now."
Quick-fingered Paul Bunch took this electrifying photograph at just the right moment to capture a bolt of lightning as it appeared to strike a plane at Halfpenny Green Airport near Wolverhampton.
Now, the 46-year-old from Wombourne has bagged himself £100 by winning the Express & Star's monthly Star Witness competition.
We have been asking readers to send in their pictures and with hundreds of fantastic shots to choose from in January, this one really struck the right spot.
He said: "I had been on the airfield just having coffee with some friends when I saw a flash of lightning. Everybody said, 'no, it's not,' but then I saw another flash and a third one that was quite spectacular. "I grabbed the camera. I hadn't got everything with me that I would have liked to have, but I got the camera on the tripod and set it to the lowest film speed and the slowest exposure and managed to capture the lightning, which happened to line up with the plane.
"When I first saw it my first reaction was, 'that's unusual,' but I would have liked to have done a better job of it. It was only when I showed people they were like, 'wow.'"
The lightning in the picture was actually at least a quarter of a mile behind the aircraft, which had been turning around to park.
