often
 

Two points:

(1) I live near Manchester, NH, and our neighborhood happens to have 5 pilots. They've all had their planes hit by lightning.

(2) I've had it come up through my feet and out my hands before, when it struck my driveway about 50 feet away from where I was standing. Knocked me to the ground. Yep, dumbass here was standing INSIDE his slightly-wet concrete-floored GARAGE (watching the electrical storm) when I picked up a FIBERGLASS broom handle with plastic whiskers, to give a couple quick pushes to a puddle that was forming at the edge of the garage, just underneath the garage door (rain was pouring, and some of it making it inside the threshold). Yes, VERY un-smart. Bolt likely ran through water channels underground, only to jump up through my feet and out my hands. Had 5-6 quick jolts in succession, HURT. Was fine.

-mike

Lucky escape...

That'll teach you for trying to use any sort of cleaning device...

My aunt sometimes tells the story of when she was washing her hair in the kitchen sink during a thunderstorm. Lightning struck the hill behind her house. Some of the current found the pipe that leads from the natural spring on the hill down to the house. She gets a shock that throws her across the room and splatters shampoo foam all over the walls and ceiling of the kitchen. She was stunned, but otherwise OK.

I annoy my wife and kids, because I won't let them use the bathroom during a thunderstorm. Something about those cast iron vent pipes poking up slightly into the sky above the roof of our house makes me nervous.

and to boot...
 

I had one of these taken OUT of my arm just 5 days prior: youch!

I shudder to think of what would have happened if it was in my arm at the time all the electricity ran through it.

lol probably nothing, I don't really understand ohms vs volts vs capacitance, etc, but still the thought scares me....

-mike

Welcome to the Cellar, Fredorpaul. :)
I'm sure the passengers both saw the flash and heard the thunder but that doesn't mean they knew it hit the plane. It happens all the time.
These little rods on the end of the control surfaces? What surfaces? I've built leading and trailing edges for 757s and 767s and never seen them.
The plane didn't go down but you're probably right about the breakers. That's one of the reasons for so much redundancy. That's also one of the things that bothers me about the fly by wire systems that have pervaded commercial planes.
The radar domes being composite, wouldn't the lightning strike further back? :question:

I've found a picture of "the little rods" on some of the edges and engine mounts.
I'm told they are to dissipate static charge built up from the air moving over the surfaces. :)