Just out of curiosity and pure ignorance, why would the pilot request a climb to 38,000 if the recommendation is not to fly over?
For reference:
Flying Techniques to Remember
Publications from the FAA and USAF give us aviators numerous tips and techniques to help with that occasional encounter with a thunderstorm. Some of them are important enough to repeat again.
* Don’t try to fly over thunderstorms. They can grow rapidly through your altitude, producing severe turbulence.
* Don’t fly under the anvil where hail damage and lightning can occur.
* Don’t fly into virga where turbulence is likely.
* Avoid all thunderstorms by 203 or more since lightning and hail have been known to extend that far from the clouds.
* Weather warnings are for thunderstorms defined as “severe.” These storms produce 3/4-inch hail, tornadoes, or 50-knot wind gusts. There’s a lot of damage that can occur in thunderstorms that are not flagged by warnings or a SIGMET (significant meteorological report).
* If you have to penetrate:
Go straight. Don’t turn around.
Avoid the altitudes with temperatures of plus/minus 8 degrees Celsius.
Don’t chase altitude. Hold your attitude and watch airspeed.
Use all anti-icing equipment.
The premise is flawed -- assumes they were climbing over a thunderstorm (and a relatively small one if it tops out in the low 30's -- others in the area reported up to 52,000 feet). Airlines frequently climb or descend to avoid turbulence, not just thunderstorms. If they knew the clouds ahead of them were at the same altitude as them, they may have initiated a climb to avoid the turbulence associated with the cloud layer.
--
"The plane requested to the air traffic control to fly to the left side which was approved, but their request to fly to 38,000 feet level from 32,000 feet could not be approved at that time due to a traffic, there was a flight above, and five minutes later the flight disappeared from radar," said an Indonesian air transport official.
http://news.yahoo.com/contact-with-airasia-flight-qz8501-bound-for-singapore-from-surabaya-lost-033803688.html
That sounds like good recommendations, so now I wonder ‘WHY’ he did that too?
I know nothing about aviation, only that I don’t fly anymore due to two pilots on commercial airliners, who scared the h&!! out of me.
So you understand this stuff? You said you were an aviator in the body of the comment.
Our government evidently has the ability to make storms and lightning, or so I read earlier today. True?