Originally Posted by Dani
You can easily overfly a typhoon.
You might be the unluckiest pilot in the world but there is also a saying that says you make your own luck...
What if you are forced to descend due to:
Cabin pressurisation issues.
Engine issues.
You might then be facing the situation where you are on one engine (if you are flying a twin), and descending into severe icing, severe turbulence, hail,... ouch!
The other day there was a line of CB, and TCU, that had only a vertical development of about 32,000 ft - 34,000 ft while we were level at 37,000 ft. We chose to divert 40 nm off track and added maybe a minute or two to the total flight time rather than fly over the top.
As remote the possibility that we suffer a malfunction such that we would be forced to descend into the weather that was only possibly 20-30 nm deep, the risk vs reward just didn't justify the shorter route IMHO.
A typical typhoon is how many miles across?
