Indonesian air traffic controllers denied AirAsia flight 8501’s request to climb higher to avoid the weather.
Minutes later the plane disappeared.
The flight was originally given the OK but the air traffic controllers reversed themselves moments later.
The Washington Post: reported
Indonesian air-traffic controllers apparently denied a request by the pilot of a missing AirAsia commercial jet to climb to a higher altitude, just minutes before the plane disappeared from their screens Sunday without a distress call.
The plane, an Airbus A320-200 with 162 people aboard, had encountered a string of intense thunderstorms and heavy clouds over the Java Sea. Hoping to avoid the worst of the weather, the pilot radioed in a request to climb from 32,000 feet to 38,000 feet, an Indonesian Transport Ministry official, Djoko Murjatmodjo, said at a news conference.
Controllers at first gave him the okay but then reversed themselves because of other air traffic in the vicinity, including a flight above his, Murjatmodjo told Kompas, a leading Indonesian newspaper.
The pilots requested an unusual route before disappearing.