Graybeard posts :
When was the last time an airliner at cruise was brought down by a thunderstorm?
I don't remember exactly, but Tstorms have brought airliners down in the past, easy to google I suppose. In my heqad I most usually associate fatal aviation thunderstorm encounters by crews flying directly into them by flying into a radar shadow.
I inadvertently flew an F4 Phantom into a small thunderstorm decades ago near Iwakuni Japan. I don't believe Japan is known for powerful convective storms in the spring time, but that fairly small storm took 2 formation flying F4's (I was the wingman) and spit both of them out inverted and flying near opposite directions in maybe 10-15 seconds. It was the most violent and briefly out of controlflight I have ever experienced. The g-meter pegged at 6 g's and I think about minus 1.5 g's. Would not prefer to be in ANY airliner for that.