Turbulence Kills One

That looks like fun

Yeah, wake turbulence can be very dangerous but it's not a natural phenomenon thankfully and can be avoided.

One more question for the pilots? When you do encounter a period of severe turbulence (out of the blue) like CAT. You’ve had nothing untoward on weather radar, or warnings from other pilots ahead

Assuming you are in the cruise Auto Pilot on, obviously buckled in. Does it come as big surprise to you guys? Or does the training and experience just kick in? And simulator training?

What I mean is, are you guys getting thrown about a bit at the pointy end, and can it be a bit disorientating ?

I’m assuming the Auto Pilot clicks off immediately, and you are straight into hand-flying. Do all recovery’s follow a similar pattern as I’m again assuming each one is fairly unique scenario?

I guess whether it’s day or night, and meteorological conditions have a large impact?

Apologies that’s maybe more that one question.

I’ve been out flying my RC plane tonight, wonderful conditions - certainly no turbulence.

Recommendations were made to not have it happen again and when they finally publish the full report I'd expect those recommendations will become rules.

Again, layman here,

Given the obvious internal "damage" will they inspect the Airframe for any issues or would it be purely procedural "nothing to see here" after a reported event like this.

Always very sad to hear people have lost their lives in such an incident, and any children or adults on the flight probably traumatised as a result as well.

I'm not a commercial pilot but have flown a lot - I'll answer a little until Eric and others can fill the gaps.

Aircraft have radars to show the weather that's ahead, and if needed will deviate their course in order to minimise the turbulence for the passengers on board. In addition the flight crew of planes ahead will report severe turbulence which is then relayed to following aircraft - more often than not this is the trigger for the "fasten seatbelt" sign to come on.

As far as the pilots getting thrown around themselves - they're upfront with 4 point belts (lap and shoulders) - and have almost certainly started in much smaller aircraft (I fly an Ikarus C42 which is bounced around like a tennis ball at times).

I'd imagine the cockpit would have been calmer than the cabin itself with things flying about and people screaming. The reality is the pilots would have known that the plane would 'survive' the turbulence - they just needed to get it back under control. The passengers would have had other feelings.

Extremely rare to happen and condolences to the man who passed away.

Flown three times in the past few days and crew tannoyed repeated requests to wear seatbelts at all times while seated. I always do. I think we will see a regulation change in the not too distant future that requires seatbelts, like in cars, to be worn at all times and there will be a ‘return to seat’ light added for situations currently covered by the ‘fasten seat belts ‘ sign. This could easily be done by replacing the No smoking signs which are hardly needed these days.

CAT is almost impossible to predict and it is impossible to see ahead the conditions that cause it. Warnings of CAT on a route are usually announced over the radio by a crew who have already encountered it.

We are getting better at plotting jet streams but being precise about the locations of where jet streams might intersect is still pretty hit and miss.

I used to fly a lot and have been in a few flights with terrible turbulence, I don't mind admitting they completely scare me. The worst one was flying back from the middle-east and the 'plane just suddenly dropped and the chap next to me hit his head on the overhead bins. I always wear that seatbelt. Most people look at it and think it is worthless but do not realise where the force is going to come from and it's not forward....

I also tend to look at the stewardesses and see if they looked freaked if they are calm it makes me slightly better (still very unhappy though). I dated a Virgin stewardess and she has done hundreds of flights and hadn't really seen anything that bad. I guess you just have to be unlucky. She complains more about the awful Vivian Westwood uniform,

This would have tipped me over the edge if I was on this flight: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/...

Seem to remember the Virgin ones have fixed bar stools and belts.

I think this is coming and maybe pretty soon. In a few years time we will look back and think it was incredible that you didn’t need to wear a belt at all times on a plane.