[zipper]

The man explaining it about the ‘tops up’ to the altitude means something to how the plane reacts if that goes into the zone (52,000 he said later to correct his earlier number) which causes a freezing that would have iced the plane....my understanding? is like a funnel effect. Not that the plane went up that high, but that it was affected by it flying THROUGH the storm.

It's true that if an airliner flies just above moisture it could still pick up icing, that could even flame out an engine. GE (designed the CFM-56 engine, common on airliners) put out a bulletin on it after multiple incidents of airliners experiencing "unexplained" flameouts on oceanic routes. Ice builds up in the engine core until eventually the engine malfunctions, more often when the power is reduced (such as starting a descent) but also in cruise at steady power settings.

Here's an article about it in the WSJ:

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120753185285993925

[zipper]

By “just above moisture” what I mean is just above visible clouds. Even thousands of feet above such clouds there may still be enough moisture present to cause induction icing in jet aircraft at high altitudes.

[Kackikat]

Thanks for info. I know nothing about aviation, I was just repeating the report last night since CNN was the only one covering at the time.