LarryW727 you said
That being said, I see two GLARING mistakes; 1) Pushing back from the gate knowing the severity of the weather insteading of delaying departure for improvement of known severity of WX.
So you obviously believe that all the other aircraft that successfully flew that route that night should also have delayed their departure? You might delay takeoff for bad local weather but not for routine ITCZ weather that requires en route deviations. Taking off when they did was not a mistake.