Officials have released some details of these messages, ..... The report said the pilot sent a manual signal at 11 p.m. local time saying he was flying through an area of "CBs
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Why would the Captain do this? A question to those still flying. Do you periodically, or ever, send a manual message to a maintenance center advising in-flight conditions? I know that I might advise center what my current flight level ride was, particularly if it was rough, but I don’t ever recall forwarding such info to flight ops. Now, if damage was suspected or potentially occuring to the airplane, then that’s a different matter. I just find it strange.