[Technocrat]

Sounds like the got turned into a giant ball of St. Elmo’s fire by the T-storms, and then the plasma currents started leaking through every ground fault they could find.

[Vendome]

BS!!! The pilot or co-pilot would have signaled over the radio. That is trained into you and instinctive. You reach out out for help from the tower of any airport.

If these pilots were presented with a series of problems they have no less than 3 ways to alert and/or make contact with control.

They are setting this thing up to be some mystery just like the Jet over Long Island.