As usual nobody reads the article. From the article:
“Satellite imagery later reviewed by the report’s authors showed strong cells associated with a storm system moving toward Hawaii that were near the flight path, according to the report.”
Also NBC needs to find better human proof readers or AI proof readers..
I wasn’t entirely satisfied with that as a possible explanation since the cells were only “near” the flight path and the plume appeared directly in front of them.
(Though I suppose there still may have been a connection.)