Powerful storms, some packing hail and lightning, stood in the path of the AirAsia flight that went missing on Sunday with 162 aboard, forecasters told NBC News. "We don't know if it was the cause but certainly the weather was not calm," a lead forecaster at the Weather Channel said. The towering thunderstorms — some 50,000 feet high, easily eclipsing a plane's cruising altitude — would have forced a pilot to change course, he said, as the pilot of AirAsia Flight QZ8501 attempted before losing contact with controllers. The flight's disappearance marks the third Malaysia-related air incident this year.
