I recently came across to this question (revision history). I saw that it was a Hot Network Question and flagged for moderator intervention to ask them to remove it from the HNQ and possibly delete it or lock it (historical lock) without knowing that closed questions are kicked out from HNQ list. [Note: what should be done about this question is another long story]
My mod-flag was raised at 2019-04-28 19:16:08Z and the question became HNQ at 2019-04-28 05:46:17Z. It was first closed at 2019-04-28 07:02:26Z and it was automatically removed from the HNQ because as mentioned here section 'Moderators have the ability to remove questions from the HNQ List.' (emphasis mine):
Up until now, the only recourse that was available was to close the question (which may be appropriate anyway but isn't ideal when done purely to manage traffic), or to do nothing.
Thus, we are sure the question was kicked out from HNQ. However, after some time it got reopened (wrongly, though). I am not sure if it became again a HNQ.
After the second closure of the question, when I came across it, I raised a mod-flag:
This blatantly off-topic question became Hot Network Question 13 hours ago. It needs to be removed (if it is not already) and might need deletion or a lock.
And I got as a response:
helpful - closed questions no longer go to the HNQ
After some time (and the second time the question was closed):
I am confused, now. Wasn't the question removed from HNQ when it was closed? Why did a moderator removed it, then?