On December 20th, an American Airlines Airbus A321 had to return to Charlotte after being struck by lightning during its departure. The aircraft involved, N996AN, is an eight-year-old Airbus A321-200 delivered to American Airlines in December 2016.
Flight AA506 was bound for Seattle and left gate B9 at Charlotte Douglas International Airport at 16:58 local time, following a delay of 40 minutes due to unspecified reasons. According to Flightradar24 data, the flight took off from runway 36C at 17:21 local time and climbed through 29,000 feet when it experienced a lightning strike on its nose.
The pilots decided to return to Charlotte as a precaution but did not declare an emergency. The aircraft landed safely back on runway 36C at 18:13 local time and taxied to gate A12 after spending just 52 minutes in the air.