“Powerful storms littered the flight path of the AirAsia passenger plane that went missing with 162 aboard on Sunday, according to forecasters. Flight QZ8501 lost contact with air traffic control after requesting permission to change course due to weather.
While there is no clear indication of what happened to the jet and what caused its disappearance, Michael Palmer — lead forecaster at The Weather Channel — said “there were numerous showers and hail throughout the Java Sea and the flight path.” The large clusters of thunderstorms, some as tall as 50,000 feet, would have forced a pilot to change course, he added. The flight “could have run into turbulence and hail. We don’t know if it was the cause but certainly the weather was not calm,” Palmer added. “
The weather never is calm at that location - tropical storms always whipping up. But they are not usually dangerous to planes. However, even if the plane was smashed by a storm - one would expect them to immediately find the wreckage. They had more than 8 hours of daylight, and a full search with military jets, but there has been no announcement more than that it is missing.
It’s been pretty obvious it was weather all along. It’s just WHAT weather issue downed the plane.
Because communication stopped suddenly, my first guess was lightning knocking out electronics and other controls. Planes are shielded so that won’t happen but there’s always that freak lightning bolt that could have its way.
Downdrafts slamming the plane down are another strong possibility.
Ice on the wings has been brought up on tv as another possibility. But one would think the pilots could have gotten a distress call out if that was the case.
I was surprised to wake up a while ago and learn they still haven’t found the plane since they were told of a plane crashing and have a vicinity to search. My first thoughts were about the passengers’ families and the torment they must be going through. :-(