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Why is there such a difference in the likelihood of being killed between using a landline and using a mobile phone on charge?

When you get a lightning strike on (or extremely close) to the phone line, the only place for it to go to ground is through the phone line. If you happen to be holding the phone, then you become part of the path back to earth.
When it hits on (or near) a power line, there are many more paths back to earth, and with the low voltage section of the charger being electrically isolated from the mains side, and the outside of the phone isolated from the electronics inside, the likely hood if the strike going through you is really, reall, really small.[/QUOTE]

I used to know a Tesltra tech who did a call out to a house that was hit my lightning at Humpty Doo about 20-25 years ago. The lightning hit the shed, ran along the clothes line between the shed & the house, and then went through the house electrics. There was a burnmark down the wall & a large black mark where the phone used to be attacthed to the wall. Almost all the light fittings were either burnt out or blown off of the roof/wall. That was a rather exceptional strike, but it gives you an idea of the energy involved.