I've seen that happen several times.
Most of my stuff is on Yachts and Oil rigs, so they take a lot of lightning strikes.

Occasionally, a few bit's in both Flash (program memory) and/or EEPROM will get erased (to a 1). Not whole bytes, just random individual bits. Depending on which bits get erased, almost any problem imaginable can happen. Sometimes only one function doesn't work right anymore, other times it's just dead, locked up in a loop somewhere. Sometimes other components are black and crispy, other times all components are fine and only the memory got changed.

Too bad you didn't save the download, a comparison with the original hex could have confirmed the hypothesis.

I originally started out with Basic Stamps, which were a lot worse than PIC's. Their program corrupts if a butterfly farts nearby. And lightning usually takes them out completely.

The PIC's were always fine, just reload and go.

I've tried all kinds of MOV's, and Transient suppressors, and gas discharge tubes, but it still happens. Since a nearby strike normally enters through the "ground" on a boat, there's nowhere to shunt it to. So I stopped using them all together, because they create problems of their own as well.

It's amazing that the lightning strike seems to affect the boat captains memory too. It's not till he finds out that there won't be any repair cost, that he suddenly remembers, oh yeah, it must have been that lightning strike we took. (lightning damage isn't covered by the warranty).
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