For me this report is a learning experience that one:
- ought not to be lackdaisical regards the use of the Wx radar
- ought to be diligent when interpreting the SIGMET chart during the pre-flight brief
If the company SOP is as stated, I find it hard to understand why one wouldn't be expecting CAT + Wx enroute.
Extrapolating forward from 1200 UTC the SIGMET chart has CAT area 2 moving NE placing it around Vienna within 3/4 hrs which extends to FL400 and ISOL EM CB's to FL300 at least...all on the expected flight path.
At FL340 it would always be hard to comply with a SOP that obliged you to be +5000' above cell tops.
In conjunction with a B757 radar picture of the scale reported, echoes certainly weren't being avoided by 15-20 miles as per the SOP.
Of course, their radar wasn't showing the equivalent information.
The incident reminds me not to be too cursory when examining a SIGMET chart and when enroute meteorology indicates TCU/CB/CAT think a little more about what the weather is actually doing. I'd be the first to admit one could say that about my attention to such detail in the past.
Of course if you're at FL550....
