I've told the tale of my encounter with lightning on more than one occasion, but the fire used to be a portent of things to come and its beauty left me somewhat cold.
That wine! Just a little at first, then the fire and the odd Boomf, as it discharged somewhere.
Remember, we had no radar in those days...and we were at 18 thousand feet. Good place to be - if you wanted to study lightning.
One night, my skipper and I were looking at some pretty fire, then we broke out of cloud into a vast chamber. It was perhaps two or three miles long and a mile or so wide. It was totally illuminated with a bright mauve light. Double
Neither of us said anything, but we just stared at it, then at each other, then back to the scene. Very, very spooky.
When I transferred to the BAC 1-11, I was surprised to find the fire was white. Always, not just and oddity. They had gold layer in the screens with huge heating current flowing in it, so, might have been the cause of the change, I don't know.
The best St. Elmo's fire I have seen was in a 737. Two huge "stag horns", one off each windshield wiper post, projecting forward through the clouds for about ten meters!
Because of the nature of 'Leaders', it's probably not a good idea to become Mesmerized by such phenomenon. Storm lights on, seat down, full harness. Every time, or flying blind might take on a new meaning.