CNN Wolf January 1, 2015 18:49:00
Storms and why couldnt they this plane, fly near water to try to land? >> well in that region, the closer you go to the equator and dont forget on the southern hemisphere its their summer now and our winter up here in the north so the more heat the more vertical development you get with clouds or the thunder clouds, thunderstorms if you will. so those are going up and those were at 55,000 feet. that far exceeds the ceiling capability of this specific aircraft, and the pilot flying knows that so ...
Source: archive.org