An Air Europa Boeing 787-800, registration EC-MOM performing flight UX-98 from Miami,FL (USA) to Madrid,SP (Spain) with 178 people on board, was climbing out of Miami’s runway 27 when the aircraft was struck by lightning.
In the absence of abnormal indications the crew continued the climb and was enroute at FL330 about 190nm eastnortheast of Miami when the crew decided to turn around and return to Miami when the first officer’s windshield started to develop cracks. The aircraft landed safely back on Miami’s runway 27 about 100 minutes after departure.
Miami Airport reported the aircraft received a lightning strike shortly after departure.
A passenger reported the captain announced about one hour into the flight that a lightning had struck the windshield, the windshield became damaged prompting them to return to Miami.
The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Miami 16 hours after landing back.