By Simon Hradecky, created Wednesday, Nov 25th 2020 10:50Z, last updated Wednesday, Nov 25th 2020 10:50Z

An Air New Zealand Avions de Transport Regional ATR-72-212A, registration ZK-MVF performing flight NZ-5814 from Wellington to Hamilton (New Zealand), was enroute at FL190 about 50nm west of Taupo (New Zealand) when the crew decided to divert to Auckland suspecting they had received a lightning strike. The aircraft landed safely on Auckland's runway 05R about 40 minutes later.

The remainder of the flight was cancelled, the passenger were rebooked onto another flight from Auckland to Hamilton.

The occurrence aircraft is still on the ground in Auckland about 13 hours after landing.

A thunderstorm warning was in effect at the time for the area around Taupo, Rotorua to Whakatane with the weather front moving over the west coast from west to east.

Infrared Satellite Image Himawari-8 Nov 24th 2020 21:00Z (Graphics: AVH/JMA):