Turbulence Kills One

Sometimes. It's rarely that bad though.

Yes, I was once on an AA 777 from JFK to LHR where dinner was suspended shortly after service started 90 minutes or so into the flight. Trolleys were stowed and cabin crew strapped in. Service was finally resumed a couple of hours later. Interesting sitting there holding onto a (plastic) glass of juice while droplets of it fly two feet or so into the air in front of you trying to catch them back in the glass!

One passenger told Reuters news agency that the aircraft suddenly started "tilting up and there was shaking".

"So I started bracing for what was happening, and very suddenly there was a very dramatic drop so everyone seated and not wearing seatbelt was launched immediately into the ceiling," 28-year-old student Dzafran Azmir said.

"Some people hit their heads on the baggage cabins overhead and dented it, they hit the places where lights and masks are and broke straight through it."

That, the risk of it falling out when the locker is opened and the fact that Ducho McEntitled is taking up the bin space reserved for 3 passengers on their own.

Ah interesting, didn't know that. The company talks about it as if it is something new so I presume it goes over and above what those aircraft have?

More in depth article: https://interestingengineering.com/innovation/turb...

Report of death toll increasing to two 😟

Depends how bumpy it is tbh.

If it’s getting bumpy I’ll put the seatbelt sign on
If it’s getting a bit bumpier I’ll call the back and see how bad it is (big aircraft are bumpier at the back than front) and suggest they don’t serve hot drinks etc
If it’s bumpier I’ll get the crew to stop doing the meal drink service and sit down
If it’s suddenly very bumpy I’ll tell the crew to be seated and that will involve them sitting where they are.

The crew will usually make a decision about how bumpy it is anyway and whether they’re going to work or not but some need more input than others.

PRE FLIGHT We have forecasts and I brief the crew where and when it might get bumpy and how bad it will be etc but it’s just a forecast, this helps them plan their services etc.

During the flight we can see weather ahead and have weather radar and if it’s clear air turbulence we might get reports from aircraft in front.

In the front we can also fly at a slower speed like turbulence penetration speed which on my aircraft is Mach.84 we might also climb or descend to a smoother flight level if possible.

Obviously if it’s sudden like that (incredibly rare) then you might not get much notice.

Lots of passengers worry about turbulence, I worry about my passengers and crew getting injured but not the aircraft itself being damaged in turbulence.

If you’re in your seat and your seatbelt is even loosely fastened you’re not going to hit the roof in turbulence.

I can confirm this is also how it works with Emirates (and I'd imagine basically every airline - not that I need to tell you though! ).

I was on a DXB-LHR last month with what was basically a sustained 6 hours of varying degrees of turbulence and the cabin crew had to put up with all four levels outlined above. I know enough about aircraft to not be bothered by turbulence, but there was a lot of people who were genuinely terrified at times (screaming / crying etc.) so really did feel for them as it went on and on. Did feel like the A380 was a good place to be though due to its sheer size... does it also have some kind of system to try and counteract turbulence at all? Sure I read that somewhere once.

Something I've wondered as well, are larger planes less susceptible to turbulence?

I've been in some fairly bad chop in an A380 but it always feels worse when in an A320/737 sized plane, at least according to my arse-gyro.

What error has the pilot made?