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A passenger says his ears are still ringing after the plane he was traveling on was struck by lightning this morning, sending a “deafening” bang crashing through the cabin and a fireball flashing off a wing.

Air New Zealand confirmed a flight from Auckland to Dunedin was hit by lightning, as meteorologists reported hundreds of strikes over the upper North Island earlier today. The flight, NZ676, was diverted to Christchurch as a result.

This morning, tradie Quincy Sio, 35, was travelling for work with a colleague as they had more than a dozen times before.

He said the weather was already making the flight feel treacherous as they battled turbulence almost as soon as they took off at 6.55am.

Sio said the plane was “shaking violently”, leaving the pair bouncing up and down and feeling frightened.

Just 10 minutes into the flight, a “deafening” bang rang out across the cabin.

“Everyone was s*** scared. Everyone was off their seat. There were people yelling and screaming, it was crazy,” Sio said.

He said as the sound rocked the plane, he saw a large orange “fireball” on the plane’s left wing.

It was difficult to hear for the hours after the noise, Sio said, and he had a bad headache from the sound.

Air New Zealand chief operations officer Alex Marren confirmed the plane was struck by lightning.

“The aircraft is now undergoing standard engineering checks, and as a result, NZ676 Dunedin-Auckland was cancelled,” Marren said.

“We are reaccommodating customers on alternate services, and we have put on an additional flight from Christchurch to Dunedin to help get customers to where they need to go.”

She said lightning strikes were not uncommon and pilots were trained for the scenario.

Sio assumed the plane took quite a bit of damage during the incident and was shocked when no messages were said over the loudspeaker and the plane did not turn around after the strike.

Instead, it carried on through to Christchurch, short of its Dunedin destination.

MetService recorded 482 lightning strikes from 4am to 7am as an active frontal band of rain swept up the country.

Auckland and Northland were upgraded to a moderate thunderstorm risk as the skies lit up with strikes around the time the flight took off.

Although an experienced flyer, Sio said he was not “feeling too keen” about the flight home.

“Feeling a bit scared about it, to be honest,” he said.