Nonstop Hilo to JFK ?

I was discussing with my sister her Hawaii trip back in 1972. She is positive that her return flight, a United widebody, flew nonstop from Hilo, HI to JFK. She has an excellent memory but I don't recall direct flights from Hilo. Is that possible? She recalls that her flight overflew the west coast at night and the pilot pointed-out that the twinkling lights was LA. This was over 30 years ago.

Back in the late 60's and 70's I believe ITO was UA's second biggest Hawaian station and from reading OAG's I do rememeber at least JFK-HNL nonstops on UA with the DC-8-62, which was known at UA as the DC-8H, as it was primarily used for long haul service to Hawaii !

Regards

LGA777

I wonder what kind of weight penalty that they had on the flight. It had to be pretty big.