Originally Posted by
peekay4
Yet numerous other aircraft were in the vicinity & flying the same exact route as QZ8501 just minutes before and after, with no issues -- not even strong turbulence.
Cb formation and the updrafts that cause them are far more rapid than most people understand. You may think that what you are looking at is a large stable storm, but it is more like a high speed lava lamp sometimes with a longer lasting core cell with shorter lived cells bubbling up around it and actually strengthening the core storm cell. The aircraft radar will show the rain that will be mainly in the downdraft part of the storm cells. It is perfectly possible for an aircraft to fly through an area with no or slight turbulence and a few minutes later a following aircraft experience severe turbulence. Updraft speeds can be of the order of 100Kts vertically. Put just one wing into a severe updraft and things can become too exciting rather rapidly. Unfortunately, the updraft is less likely to show as significant on radar and it may be associated with a short lived storm cell alongside the main storm, so the aircraft ahead had nothing remarkable and the one behind may not experience much either - you are the lucky one that found the updraft.