The touch down point is 2-3 miles away from the aircraft.
I have had 3 lightning strikes while airborne the worst one was the second which mugged me sideways out of a cloud. That one magnetised the wing which was a bit of a pain to sort out.
The other two, loads of st elmos going up the window then a biggish bang and this is where things differed. The EFIS aircraft really didn't like it and all the screens shut down and the whole lot shut down for 2-3mins then rebooted. The steam instrument aircraft it didn't miss a beat with engines turning and apart from a funny smell from the pax. Both were near ROSUN hold.
Two of them had a 50p hole blown in the skin one on the wing tip one on the rudder. The time the wing became magnetised when it got us sideways it had hit the fuel filler cap.
One of the atlantic pilots said he had been hit in exactly the same place in a DC3 and with them afterwards there was a blue glow from the back and when they looked there was ball lightning floating in the cabin.