Published Friday, 29 June 2012
The Fight for This Love hitmaker was preparing to leave Frankfurt Airport on a private jet when heavy rain began pouring down and take-off was delayed.
Cole admits she feared the worst when a lightning bolt came crashing down, but she was overjoyed when the bad weather subsided and they could finally depart.
She tells The Sun: "We were stuck in the plane and just sitting on the runway and a bright massive flash of light hit outside the aircraft. I said to my friend: 'That's lightning' - then it just didn't stop.
"I was so scared that I thought, 'This is it. I've got an album to promote and I've got so much yet to do!' We had to stay put in the aircraft on the runway. They couldn't even take us back to the terminal.
"When we finally took off about an hour later I was terrified we'd be hit by lightning in the air. But I remembered I'd climbed (Mount) Kilimanjaro, so (I) took a bit of strength from that."
Cole isn't the only star to have suffered a flight drama this month - rocker Noel Gallagher was filled with anxiety when a pilot prepared to take off in the middle of a raging storm in Russia, and Dannii Minogue was flying over Australia when a bolt clipped her plane.