Weather
I would like more clarification if there was weather in the area. I used to get frusterated with guys who liked to push their luck in an attempt to out-climb a growing system or skirt it tightly.
CAT... Had a wild ride over the amazon sleeping on a pallet in L1 and woke up pressed against the crown of the aircraft with an abrubt change in gravity, luckily the pallet was built to max hight and I did not really get banged up at all.
Took off out of Manaus heading for VCP once with 2 bumpers building and converging off to the south, the F/O was flying and wanted to go for the gap between the storms. The Capt did not mind burning the gas and climbing out to the north first but let the F/O have a go at it. We dipped our wing tips in each storm, not much turbulence but it was stupid none the less.
Landing in Brussels, big red blob right in the middle of our planned approach. Captain justified not burning the extra gas by the reasoning that the weather in europe that time of the year was pretty benign when it comes to the up and down drafts most would associate with a storm of that rain density. He was right, not too bumpy, but the static discharge we experienced had all of our vision and hearing screwed up for a few moments.
These days of conservation have companies pumping aircraft to minimum required fuel, this has a definate effect on pilot judgement. The stupid situations I have been in were mostly in freighters, much more care is taken when there are 400 souls onboard.
The 2 things I have to say here kids are allways keep your seatbelt loosley attached around the waist and never,never fly through the red stuff and avoid the yellow as much as possible.