I wonder how much of the flight crew’s decision to fly into the storm could be due to east Asian culture. They’re not as independent minded and tend to obey authority more than we do. From what’s been reported this was a very big storm.
That, too, was brought up by the investigator. This was in line with additional discussion over the plane that overran the runway at SFO some months ago. Although by hour-counter...many of these pilots have lots and lots of hours....most of those hours are in essence sitting by as a computer does the work. So those autopilot hours mean almost nothing in terms of gathering actual real-world piloting chops.