competition with differing airlines stl ss there. when this plane was flying around at 32,000 feet and encountered a great big storm, he had company out there. storm 200 square miles, 52,000 feet up in the air, towering up there, could be producing big winds, 70 80 90 miles an hour. who knows. microbursts. all sorts of issues. we know though he wasn t the only plane. at the time he disappeared, there were at least five other flights 2,000 feet above and within 124 miles. that may seem like a long distance but planes traveling this fast it s not that long of a distance so the determination was he could not rise into that airspace. he definitely wanted to. he was at 32,000. he had requested to go up to 38,000 and had been told he could not. there was an approval right near the end of about 34,000 feet to let him come up some. it s not clear whether that was fully communicated to the plane or not. or if the plane had already disappeared.