An air carrier crew flying a route over the gulf of mexico used command authority to exceed the 162 ...

Narrative:

After takeoff from mia and contacting mia center received a 270 heading for weather avoidance; [head to] txo when able. Extensive line of weather to our north tops over 450 and our maximum altitude at the time 360. Line of weather kept pushing us southwest eventually forcing us to exceed the 162 mile limit. Upon recognition of this; I notified houston center on 135.77. [I told the] controller that I was exercising my emergency authority. After clearing the weather [we] made an immediate turn to the north to reestablish ourselves within the limit. The choices faced here was fly through hazardous weather and stay within limits or exceed the 162 mile limit. Originally routed to fly north around the gulf; but on taxi out received message from dispatch that gulf was clearing and presented a clearer option than the northerly route. Based on this info I requested the reroute over the gulf with mia center.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: An Air Carrier crew flying a route over the Gulf of Mexico used command authority to exceed the 162 NM limit for aircraft not overwater equipped after a line of thunderstorms blew south. The aircraft was not capable of climbing above the cells.

Narrative: After takeoff from MIA and contacting MIA Center received a 270 heading for weather avoidance; [head to] TXO when able. Extensive line of weather to our north tops over 450 and our maximum altitude at the time 360. Line of weather kept pushing us southwest eventually forcing us to exceed the 162 mile limit. Upon recognition of this; I notified Houston Center on 135.77. [I told the] Controller that I was exercising my emergency authority. After clearing the weather [we] made an immediate turn to the north to reestablish ourselves within the limit. The choices faced here was fly through hazardous weather and stay within limits or exceed the 162 mile limit. Originally routed to fly north around the gulf; but on taxi out received message from Dispatch that gulf was clearing and presented a clearer option than the northerly route. Based on this info I requested the reroute over the gulf with MIA Center.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 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.

Attributes
ACN	881062
Time
Date	201003
Local Time Of Day	1801-2400
Place
Locale Reference	ZHU.ARTCC
State Reference	TX
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	B757-200
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Cruise
Route In Use	Vectors
Flight Plan	IFR
Person 1
Function	Captain Pilot Flying
Person 2
Function	First Officer Pilot Not Flying
Events
Anomaly	Deviation - Procedural Published Material / Policy Deviation - Track / Heading All Types Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence

An air carrier crew flying a route over the gulf of mexico used command authority to exceed the 162 NM limit for aircraft not overwater equipped after a line of thunderstorms blew south. The aircraft was not capable of climbing above the cells.