KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 29 ― Indonesia AirAsia Flight QZ8501 was prohibited from ascending to escape bad weather as other planes were above before the commercial jet disappeared, Indonesian authorities said yesterday.

Indonesia’s air transportation director at the transport ministry Joko Muryo Atmodjo was reported by Indonesian news portal Kompas.com as saying that Jakarta air traffic control did not allow the pilot’s request to climb to 38,000 feet from 32,000 feet to avoid clouds, but only allowed the plane carrying 162 on board to move to the left.

“From its location, based on weather radar, conditions were not good. There were cumulonimbus clouds,” Joko was quoted saying, referring to dense clouds involved in thunderstorms.

Flight QZ8501, which carried one Malaysian on board, disappeared from radar at 6.18am local time yesterday enroute to Singapore from Surabaya in Indonesia.

In a separate article, Kompas.com reported aviation analyst Yayan Mulyana as saying that Flight QZ8501 was at the lowest position compared to other planes in its vicinity that were flying higher than 34,000 feet.

Yayan reportedly said there were four other planes near the Airbus A320 jet: Garuda Indonesia GIA602, Lion Air LNI763, AirAsia QZ502 and Emirates UAE409.

GIA602 and UAE409 were at 35,000 feet, while LNI763 and QZ502 were at 38,000 feet.

The analyst said Flight QZ8501 may have been struck by lightning and that the absence of a distress call indicated that the plane and its communications systems could have been damaged quickly.

On board Flight QZ8501 were 155 Indonesians, three South Koreans, one Malaysian, one Singaporean, one Frenchman and one Briton, comprising 155 passengers and seven crew members.

Indonesia resumed search operations for the missing jet early this morning, whose last known position was between the Indonesian port of Tanjung Pandan and the town of Pontianak, in West Kalimantan on Borneo island.