Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Flight Crew Last 90 Days 150; Flight Crew Total 10000; Flight Crew Type 500
Deviation / Discrepancy - Procedural Published Material / Policy
General None Reported / Taken
Procedure; Human Factors; Weather
Dispatch had our flight filed through the center of a tropical storm. The captain called dispatch and requested to be re routed around the storm to the north; this caused a significant departure delay; however it was actually shorter than the original flight time by two minutes.  I have major safety concerns regarding this routing. First; we were able to look at the flight plan well ahead of time at the hotel. In Lagos it is common for us to not be able to access the internet or for it to be so slow we can't use it.  It's also common to not have access to a flight plan until 90 minutes prior to departure. If any of this would have happened we probably would have flown the filed route without fully realizing how bad the weather was. The route they filed us through included KZNY SIGMET Hotel 2 for frequent thunderstorm tops above FL500. CNVC 22172 for FL440 to FL490 broken coverage; increasing convection associated with tropical storm Fay with max sustained winds 50kts with gusts to 60kts.CNVC 21109 for FL420 to FL470; broken coverage; convection with circulation around subtropical storm Fay. KZNY SIGMET Golf 2 for the tropical storm; intensifying with frequent thunderstorm tops FL500.  All of our training and policies with regard to turbulence mitigation and avoidance as well as thunderstorm avoidance would have to be ignored to fly through our original route. Our training guidance is to stay at least 20nm upwind of a moderate or greater radar echo and 1nm per knot of wind on the downwind side. The FOM states 'Airborne weather radar is designed as a weather avoidance tool and is not a weather penetration system.' The AFM has a caution note that states 'CAUTION: weather radar should not be used for penetration of thunderstorm areas where the precipitation between aircraft and target is moderate to heavy.' None of these policies would have been possible on our original route.  Furthermore; it would also have been impossible to comply with AD 20XX-XX-XX regarding ice crystal icing.  'Operations in ice crystal icing can cause unrecoverable loss of thrust and engine damage due to ice crystal icing.' it also states 'flight is prohibited within 50 NM of amber or red radar returns that are displayed below the aircrafts' flight path.' As a crew we were all wondering if the dispatcher had even looked at the weather; or perhaps used a flight plan from the previous flight.  There was an obvious disregard for safety of flight on our original route. I have screenshots of the weather and our originally filed route but I am unable to attach them. Please contact me if they will be useful.
First Officer reported Dispatch planned their flight through the center of a tropical storm in the Western Atlantic.  Flight crew requested a re-route.