I flew from Denver to Seattle last night. Considering how much I fly, I experienced something new. When approaching the Seattle area, the captain said we would need to do some circles while wating for a thunderstrom to move through. Pretty rare indeed for this time of year. Anyway, at one point, there was an extremely bright flash and crack of thunder on the right side of the plane. Lots of people screamed and freaked out. I assumed that we had been hit by lightning which is not uncommon and relatively safe as long as you are inside the plane. The captain came on the intercom a few minutes later to say it was a static electricity discharge. I have never heard of this before and wonder if he said that because it sounds more innocent than lightning strike... any comments from the rest of you?

Lightning is a discharge of static electricity - so the pilot wasn't lying, but it certainly sounds less frightening than saying you were struck by lightning. Safer being aboard an aeroplane than on the golf course, anyway...

If it flashes like lightning, emits electricity like lightning, thunders as it does after lightning, then it is lightning.

Static electricity does sound better, though.