I try to tell myself when we’re rollicking up and down at 30,000 feet or something that there would be probably a good ten minutes before any kind of impact, and it’s very unlikely that the wings or rudder would tear off. Somehow it doesn’t help. But what about when on final approach, or below a certain altitude, or in a smaller plane? Have you ever experienced turbulence you felt justified in being scared of?
I take my lead from the flight attendants. If they don’t look worried, I don’t worry.
Never, because there is nothing you can do about it. In fact, if you freak out or try to do anything you more than likely will put the crew at risk as they attempt to get up and clam you down.
Turbulence at cruising height doesn’t worry me, but I do get a little anxious when we’re coming in to land and the plane starts bucking up and down. I figure that the turbulence itself isn’t going to harm the plane, but a sudden turbulence-induced drop at just the wrong point in the landing process could be bad news. Is this fear justified?
(One time landing at Keflavik the plane was rocking and rolling all over the place on final approach. Just as we were about to touch down it suddenly rolled sharply to the right, and looking out of the window the right/starboard wing engine really didn’t look far from the ground. We landed at quite an angle and it felt like we bounced from one set of landing gear to the other a couple of times as we landed. That was a little bit hairy.)
I was a passenger in a guy’s Cessna during very bad weather (icing). I held together fine until the pilot was obviously worried.
The airplane is much stronger than you think. If people aren’t literally bouncing off the ceiling, everything is fine. In fact, even if they are, chances are good that the airplane is still probably fine. Turbulence occasionally injures flight attendants by tossing 250 lb service carts onto their legs, but turbulence-related fatalities are extremely rare, and structural damage is nearly unheard of.
If you want to greatly mitigate your chances of turbulence-induced injury, keep your seat belt around your waist whenever you’re in your seat. This will prevent you from getting tossed around if the airplane does encounter severe turbulence.
As an aside, if I have my choice between a smooth ride with a headwind or a rough ride with a tailwind, I’ll take the tailwind every time (assuming I don’t have passengers on board).
How unlikely is it? I guess for it to be a problem you’d need turbulent air masses with a sharp enough border and sufficient relative speed for just one wing to be violently pressed up or down. Or a not quite as sharp border in the direction of travel with sufficient speed to blow the tail up and off, or something?
Ever seen pictures of wing flex tests? Planes are quite bendy.
Next time we go through turbulence I’ll be thinking of this.
Believe it or not but you should be more afraid of take-offs than landings. Landing is essentially coasting downhill, if anything goes wrong the plane is still 95% correctly configured to deal with it. If something goes wrong on take-off however, you’re options are much more limited. (Actually, just before take-off, once you’re past the point of being able to abort…)
Really? I thought that an aborted landing and “go around” was the most dangerous situation.
Icing can be a serious issue for aircraft (e.g. most small Cessnas) not equipped to deal with it - and sometimes for larger ones that are (especially when the pilots respond incorrectly).
The final conclusion, though, of that crash was that icing was not a major factor. (I can’t exactly figure out what factor, if at all, it was, though. Did it somehow contribute to the stall? I can’t quite find that information. The icing and de-icing systems and protocols are mentioned, but the conclusion is that wasn’t a big factor. It’s a little unclear to me.)
never mind turbulence - this is scary: - YouTube
Nothing I can do about it. When it gets really turbulent I’m more worried about throwing up than dying.
When you’re unbelted.
When was the last time a Western airplane was damaged by turbulence? I can’t remember one.
It was the only time I’ve ever gotten sick on a plane/boat/roller-coaster/etc. The second passenger puked also. Then, after landing, we were unable to stand/walk.
It’s not unjustified. There have been more than a few instances of planes crashing during a landing attempt in a storm, due to microbursts.
When was the last time a passenger in an airplane was injured by turbulence? I found a few cites for last month, none yet in December but I haven’t looked very hard.
And here’s a cite from last month for a small plane crash that killed the pilot which was partially blamed on turbulence: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/emergency-services/2013/11/15/air-crash-due-to-turbulence-and-pilo-inexperience/