Feature Stories
TURBULENCE - The Unforgettable Flight
Turbulence is a minor inconvenience for most airline passengers, but for a few travelers it’s a scary experience they will never forget.
Brett Snyder is one of those passengers whose encounter with turbulence became an unforgettable moment. It happened one August afternoon in the early 90’s. Snyder was flying with his family on a US Airways Boeing 767 from Los Angeles to Charlotte, North Carolina. Shortly before landing, the jetliner descended into storm clouds.
From his cabin window, Snyder could see the landing gear down and the flaps being positioned to slowdown the plane. But before the jetliner dropped below the clouds, Snyder heard the roaring sound of the engines, and then the nose of the plane started pointing up.
"Unfortunately, the plane continued to fall. I've never felt anything like it before.
And yes, I was very scared," Snyder remembers.
The pilot gunned the engines, pulling the wide body jet out of its descent. He finally landed the plane on the third approach and that’s when the nervous passengers filled the cabin with a chorus of cheers. "Once on the ground, the color came back to my face," and Snyder added, "The pilot came on and apologized.”
Explaining the turbulence, the pilot said they had hit a significant amount of windshear on the approaches. On the flight back, Snyder noticed the same crew working onboard the plane. When he mentioned to one of the flight attendants that he had been on the “windshear” flight, her face turned a bit white before she confessed, "I've never been so scared before.”
Snyder worked in the airline industry for several years and is currently the author of the blog, “Cranky Flier.” He still remembers that afternoon flight as his worst experience with turbulence. Of course, Snyder's flight was an extremely rare incident and the plane landed safely, but the experience is a lesson that both turbulence and those "fasten seat belt" signs should be taken seriously.
In North America, most turbulence occurs in the winter when the Jet Stream shifts down, moving south from Canada and into the path of thousands of flights crossing the Midwest. The Jet Stream is a narrow air current about 36,000 ft above the Earth’s surface. Pilots like to use the jet stream to shorten their flight time.
Turbulence is also caused by changes in the wind due to storm conditions. It can also be result of an updraft from a mountain range. But clear air turbulence can occur in blue skies and appears invisible to the human eye and radar. Over half of the aircraft encounters with turbulence occur above 20,000 ft., and are listed as “clear air” incidents according to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB).
Most of the serious injuries caused by turbulence could have been prevented by passenger safety belts.
A study by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) found that in 73 of the 80 incidents reporting serious injury due to turbulence, passengers were not wearing seat belts. The study (FAA 1981-1997) also listed three deaths and 769 minor injuries during that same time period.
Jim Carney, a retired Northwest pilot claims many passengers do not take the threat of turbulence seriously. Carney says it’s because they’ve never had an encounter with severe turbulence. Carney stated, "I have been in flights where a passenger's meal ends up ten rows down, dripping from the ceiling."
Air Turbulence is the second most common form of injury for flight attendants, according to the Association of Flight Attendants. These incidents are costing the average carrier $25.8 million annually to pay for injured passengers, flight attendants, and damaged aircraft.
But less dangerous skies will most likely be the future of airline travel. Scientists are working on better ways of predicting turbulence and detecting dangerous winds in storm clouds, giving pilots the option of flying out of harm’s way.
Current FAA guidelines tell pilots to avoid thunderstorms by at least 20 miles when possible. The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is working on a turbulence detection system that will help pilots find calm air in a storm system. This could reduce flight delays by giving pilots a detailed forecast of turbulence so they can fly through the calmest part of a storm.
The system analyzes data from the National Weather Service's Doppler radar and uses a mathematical method to create a computer image of the turbulence in a storm.
A group of United Airline’s pilots, who fly east of the Rockies, tested the system in October and found it gave them an accurate depiction of the intensity of turbulence.
NCAR scientist, Bob Sharman says the system will provide safer air travel in the contiguous United States by 2011.
While the NTDA system has been developed to help pilots detect turbulence, Boeing has engineered it’s new 787 Dreamliner to reduce light to moderate turbulence by up to two-thirds while the plane climbs to high altitudes. As for the Airbus A380, its shear size helps make it more resistant to effects of severe turbulence.
While some travelers would rather not even think about the possibility of turbulence during their flights, Peter Murray spends his days thinking about these dangerous winds.
Murray works for Michigan State University. In 2005 he launched the web site, turbulenceforecast.com. His web creation came after a girlfriend moved to Maryland and he was forced to make frequent flights to see her. The web site takes information from the FAA’s “turbulence advisories” and translates it into easy to read maps of the United States and other parts of the world.
The site offers a feature called the World Turbulence Explorer which uses Google maps to show turbulence hotspots all over the globe. Murray also maintains a blog and a forum where travelers can post their flight plans. Murray answers their blog with a turbulence forecast.
Murray says passengers are most likely to run into turbulence in the Denver region. "At certain times of the year over the Rocky Mountains, mountain wave, (turbulence) is very common and it doesn't matter how high you are - the air is like a pancake that is being pushed up."
On another web site, weary passengers can chat with Captain Tom Bunn an airline pilot. Captain Bunn founded SOAR in 1982. This organization has helped over 5,000 people overcome their fear of flying. At their website, fearofflying.com, passengers can register and chat with Captain Bunn every Wednesday. SOAR helps passengers overcome "In-flight Anxiety" which Capt. Tom Bunn describes as "Any form of emotional discomfort when you’re flying."
Getting back to our first passenger, Brett Snyder offers some advice to fearsome flyers. Snyder says the best advice he can give fellow passengers is to think of the situation rationally.
"You aren't going to crash if you hit turbulence at cruising altitude. And if you have your seat-belt on, you won't get hurt even if the bumps get extreme," Snyder tells us.
"You can always just clutch the armrests and stare out the window until you get through it, as uncomfortable as that may be."
Think of it as a good moment to bond with the person sitting next to you.
