<< >> NASA ASRS Report 1423609, February 2017

B737 flight crew reported deviating to avoid a thunderstorm without clearance when ATC could not allow a turn or climb.

Attributes
ACN	1423609
Time
Date	201702
Local Time Of Day	1201-1800
Place
Locale Reference	ZJX.ARTCC
State Reference	FL
Environment
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B737 Next Generation Undifferentiated
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Pilot Flying Captain
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 88 Flight Crew Type 20000
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Experience	Flight Crew Last 90 Days 160
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Deviation - Procedural Clearance Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

Narrative:

ATC headed us into a thunderhead and would not give me higher to get over; or a change in heading to avoid it. I offered to do a 360 or reverse course; etc. ATC told me to fly through it. I did not. I went from a 360 heading to 050 for a brief period for safety and told him what I was doing. ATC offered me higher in 10 miles. That would not have worked at all. Finally he gave me from FL340 to FL350. I needed FL410. He was task saturated and (other carrier) was also on frequency with the same problem and same response. I know there was a lot of conflicting traffic; but he was limited in his ability to think outside of a straight line. We managed without a TCAS RA or TA; and no conflict resulted.

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: B737 flight crew reported deviating to avoid a thunderstorm without clearance when ATC could not allow a turn or climb.

Narrative: ATC headed us into a thunderhead and would not give me higher to get over; or a change in heading to avoid it. I offered to do a 360 or reverse course; etc. ATC told me to fly through it. I did not. I went from a 360 heading to 050 for a brief period for safety and told him what I was doing. ATC offered me higher in 10 miles. That would not have worked at all. Finally he gave me from FL340 to FL350. I needed FL410. He was task saturated and (other carrier) was also on frequency with the same problem and same response. I know there was a lot of conflicting traffic; but he was limited in his ability to think outside of a straight line. We managed without a TCAS RA or TA; and no conflict resulted.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.