I remember seeing a TV documentary about investigation into "ball lightning".
The scientists had deduced that it could not happen following normal laws of physics and, sure enough, they could not produce it in the lab.
However, your jet airplane up in the sky is not in quite the same situation as a ground based lab.
By definition it is not earthed (grounded) so who knows what an electrical discharge or accumulation of static may do.
Imagine what their reaction would have been if they had a dose of St Elmo's on the car windshield during the ride home.