PITTSBURGH — The Federal Aviation Administration is investigating how air traffic controllers allowed five planes to take off from a closed runway at Pittsburgh International Airport.

The FAA says the aircraft departed Tuesday even though the runway had been closed that morning because of storm damage to runway lights.

According to an FAA statement, a visual aid in the control tower had been damaged and did not display the closed runway.

Once the Allegheny County Airport Authority reported the runway was closed, controllers halted departures.

On Jan. 26, a controller cleared a Republic Airlines flight for departure on a runway that had been closed for maintenance.

Boy hospitalized after lightning strikeSHAMOKIN — A northeastern Pennsylvania boy is hospitalized after a lightning strike that hit just after he got off the school bus near his house.State police say lightning hit a nearby tree as 10-year-old Logan Williams was walking toward his home in Shamokin on Wednesday afternoon.The fourth-grader was knocked out by the strike. Witnesses say the boy’s father performed CPR while the bus driver dialed 911. Williams was transported to Geisinger Medical Center and was listed in critical condition.The boy’s grandfather, Mike Buriak, said that doctors believe the boy was injured by the concussive force of the strike but suffered no burns.