"Weather definitely seems to be relevant. LiveATC recording has him requesting initally 5 miles left and right, of which only 5nm right was granted due to restricted airspace. The approach controller later gave him 10nm right, and at some point offered "alternative routing", so the aircraft was definitely trying to avoid something"
Was discussing this sad event with my brother. He is now a B777 pilot but learnt his trade flying 210's, Baron's etc in NT for years. One comment he made was that if confronted with a hairy weather situation he would not ASK for an ATC clearance but TELL ATC what he had to do as appropriate for the conditions he was facing and let them sort things out from there. Perhaps this is something a relatively low time pilot would not consider?
RIP
