Why ??
My question is why did the crew fly through the storm in the first place. Other aircraft diverted up to 90 nm to go around the storm but not this crew. WHY ??
Was the radar working ? Did they leave Rio with inop radar? Did they simply ignore the radar?
It seems quite stupid to me to fly a passenger jet at hight altitude close to the coffin corner through a CB. What were they thinking? Had they diverted, they would be alive today.