The co-pilot of the Heathrow crash plane had twice survived being struck by lightning.

John Coward, 41 crewed the BA Boeing 777 which crash landed short of the runway at Heathrow airport narrowly missing a busy road and leaving massive skidmarks in the grass on Thursday.

All 136 passengers and 16 crew on the BA flight from Beijing survived.

But this was not the first time Senior First Officer Coward's luck was in.

The dad-of-three and pal Geoff Moss were hit by lightning while mountain climbing in 1994 while in Agentiere near Mont Blanc.

And that was the second time he had survived a lightning bolt leading friends to nickname him Calamity.

Speaking of Thursday's crash-landing Coward told the Sunday Mirror: "Suddenly there was nothing from any of the engines, and the plane started to glide."

"I didn't think we'd clear the fence at first. As we landed I was bracing myself for an enormous thud. But instead of one thud, there was a series of thuds as it bounced along the grass."