Passing through tall, dense cumulonimbus thunderclouds is not an intelligent strategy in any passenger aircraft. The big question is "why did the pilots not divert around the thunderstorm?"
It was night-time but their weather radar would have warned them of the thuderstorm, even if they didn't see the lightening strikes.
93 posted on 06/04/2009 3:03:42 PM PDT by expatpat