Heathrow Director, “Down to the individual crew, surely?”, but that is just one of the problems along with errors of judgement, lack of knowledge of the hazards, lack of world experience, associated threats, turbulence, ice, hail, lightning, etc, etc. Spot on LEM
Having penetrated large tropical storms in a civil aircraft suitably equipped for research purposes, I report that Vra only just provides protection against both a full stall and the published ‘g’ limits (plus and minus) all within a 2 sec period, but does little to protect the aircraft composite structures from hail damage or ice accumulation.
Even the most innocuous Cb can spawn a microburst; let alone turbulence, lightning, and hail at considerable lateral distances. We often forget the old-timers advice about ‘humbleys’, bumbleys’, and grumbleys’: avoid, avoid, avoid. 10 nm is a good start, but if you know what the tops are and it's above the tropopause then make it 30 nm. For these large storms, even the more experienced operators in the tropics stay in the hotel.
Many problems stem from the use (misuse) of modern wx radar, enabling crews to clearly see where the weather is; except for overconfidence, poor judgement, and cutting the corner.
Why do we forget so many hard-learnt lessons?
Heathrow Director, IMHO, you ain’t seen nothing yet.