Guys, the 5nm warning is Qantas company policy. The 5nm tarmac shutdowns are directed from the Sydney operations centre based on weather radar. Whether this is sensible or not, and whether they could've done it better, well that's another issue. But they're the facts.
Yes, there was a LOT of lightning in those storms. We sat there, engines running for 5 hours (and we got off lightly compared to others), watching it and waiting for the tarmac to open and the backlog to clear. It was a spectacular display at times. One outbound crew relayed to me how passengers were whining in the gate lounge that they should be allowed to board, until a lightning bolt struck the near the aerobridge with a nice loud crack. Then they went real quiet!
Re the SAA airbus, don't know whether it was struck by lightning (though one of our 767s certainly was struck during approach), but the media report is not entirely correct. It had two burst/flat tyres. It was not an indication problem. How do I know that? It turned off the runway right in front of us after landing and sat there while the fire crews and their ground engineer inspected it. The deflated tyres were clearly visible, one on the left bogie and one on the centre. That incident, plus several medical issues on various aircraft, just added to a really crap day.
It was definitely one of those "let's chuck on another 6 tonnes" days! There were indeed some very agitated and anxious passengers, but feedback was that the pax, despite a few eyeing off the doors & slides, were generally very happy with how the crews handled it all. A few PAs stating that "we share your frustration and pain" (which was quite genuinely true!) seemed to do the trick.