- A Hawaiian Airlines flight returned to Las Vegas after being struck by lightning, KSNV reported.
- The plane, headed to Honolulu, taxied for 90 minutes before flying for just 20 minutes, flight-tracking data shows.
- The National Weather Service says on average, commercial planes are hit by lightning one or two times a year.
A Hawaiian Airlines flight to Honolulu on Sunday was forced to return to Las Vegas after the plane was struck by lightning, reports say.
The plane, an Airbus A330-200, set off from Las Vegas’ Harry Reid International on Sunday night, but instead of flying a six-hour route to Daniel K. Inouye International in Honolulu it was instead diverted and returned to its departure airport, data from flight-tracking websites FlightAware and Flightradar24 shows.
Data from the sites shows that though the plane left the gate on time, it taxied for about an hour and a half in Las Vegas before setting off. The flight only lasted around 20 minutes, and the plane never even crossed the border from Nevada to California, the sites show.
A spokesperson for Hawaiian Airlines told NBC-affiliate KSNV that the plane, which was carrying 278 passengers, was diverted because of a “lightning strike.” The aircraft was inspected on its return to Las Vegas, and passengers were given hotel accommodation and food, the spokesperson added.
The airline did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment, made outside of regular business hours.
The US National Weather Service says that on average, commercial transport passenger planes are hit by lightning one or two times a year.
“Strikes to airplanes are relatively common but rarely result in a significant impact to the continued safe operation of the airplane,” aerospace company Boeing says.
Planes that carry passengers are designed with conducting paths through the plane to take the lightning strike and conduct the currents, the NWS says.
