Lucky escape for boy, 13, hit by lightning at 13:13 on Friday the 13th

[Borg 386]

Lucky escape for boy, 13, hit by lightning at 13:13 on Friday the 13th
'It's all a bit strange,' ambulance team leader tells newspaper

Boy, 13, hit by lightning at 13:13 on Friday the 13th - World news - Weird news - msnbc.com

Boy, 13, Struck By Lightning at 13:13 on Friday 13th

msnbc.com
updated 8/15/2010 2:12:14 AM ET

LONDON (Aug. 15) -- Friday the 13th proved especially unlucky for one 13-year-old British boy, who was struck by lightning at exactly 13:13 on the much-feared date.

The teenager was among a crowd of 170,000 people watching an aeronautical display at the Lowestoft Seafront Air Festival in the east of England when he was zapped by a bolt from the sky, reported The Mirror. He suffered minor burns and is expected to make a full recovery.

Rex Clarke, who led the St. John ambulance team that treated the boy, said that it had been raining and thundering throughout the day, and so many air show spectators were clutching umbrellas -- good conductors, he told the Daily Mail -- when the electrical storm hit.

"Suddenly there was this huge crack of lightning really close to the seafront and really loud thunder," he said to the Mirror. "Seconds later we got a call someone had been hit. The boy was breathing and was conscious. He had a minor burn to his shoulder and was taken to hospital as a precaution. It could have been a lot worse."

He added that the timing of the event was quite eerie, saying, "It's all a bit strange that he was 13, and it happened at 13:13 on Friday 13."

Another teenager and a woman standing near to the unnamed boy were also struck and received treatment. "We were just watching the planes go past and ... there was a flash of lightning," Jordan Gissing, 16, told Norwich Evening News, explaining how he threw his umbrella to the ground after seeing a spark on his hand. "I couldn't speak. I was shocked."

 

[smarteyeball]

"I couldn't speak. I was shocked."

That's because it was shocking...

 

[BCXtreme]

IMO, the timing is no more unusual than when you look at a clock and see 12:34, or 13:13, or anything like that any other day. No different than having your eighth birthday on August 8, 2008! There was an electrical storm present, and people were carrying good conductors en masse, so it wasn't really a "phenomenon" in the true sense of the word.

And how do they know what time it was anyway? Someone actually saw a boy get struck by lightning, and at that moment then proceeded to check their watch?!

 

[Lebon14]

...and if there would have been a 13th month, it would have something of the like (although in the future) :

13/13/13 (where that date is Friday) at 1:13pm (13:13)...

Anyway, I hardly believe the time it happened. The fact that it happend on Friday, August 13 2010, is OK but the time... a bit not right.

 

[Borg 386]

Don't know how they knew the time. I just got the E mail, checked it out & apparently it's all over the news if you google it.

Maybe it stopped his watch, maybe some people did note the time....it did happen in a crowd

Just something interesting I thought I'd post. If it did happen at that exact time, the odds are pretty staggering.

 

[z3r010]

In the original reports 13:13 was the time that he was ambulance crew started treating him.

 

[Kirsch]

I would be hard pressed to believe the lightning bolt struck at 13:13. If so, however, dayem nature, you SCARY!!

 

[BCXtreme]

The time does seem pretty unlikely. However, all superstition aside, the chances of being struck at 13:13 are no slimmer than the chances of being struck at 13:12 or 13:14, or any other time.