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For hundreds of Hawaii residents and visitors, the Thanksgiving holiday ended with a bang - from a lightning strike.
A little after noon on Sunday, Hawaiian Airlines Flight 19 was struck by lightning about 12 miles southwest of Honolulu International Airport as it was arriving from Sacramento.
Four hours later, Hawaiian Airlines Flight 1121 was also hit as it was en route from Hilo to Honolulu.
Hawaiian Airlines Flight 278 took a blow at 5 p.m. while it was flying from Honolulu to Kona. And less than an hour later, Flight 236 was hit as it shuttled passengers from Honolulu to Maui.
Four lightning strikes in a span of six hours is highly unusual, according to aviation experts. And while pilots are trained to avoid storm clouds, the heavy cloud cover and pounding rains on Sunday may have given them little choice but to punch through the turbulence.
"It gives you an indication that there must have been lots of rain that the planes were flying through and an environment for static issues," said Peter Forman, a local aviation historian.
