On 5 September 2014, the crew of an Embraer 145 encountered a more continuous area of convective activity en-route than expected. When it became impossible to see a way to continue through it, the aircraft commander requested, received and actioned flight path advice from the Company flight-following function. This led to the penetration of a mature thunderstorm and several minutes of severe turbulence with aircraft control lost and only regained upon exit from the storm. The Investigation found that the weather avoidance advice was based on an inappropriate source and that following it was an inappropriate command decision.