turbulence

[creamegg]

Ok I survived my flight to and frm Copenhagen but coming back we suffered bloomin' awful turbulence!!!!

It was as if we were a giant rattle and we were getting shaken frantically, it was so scary. The pilot came on and said we were going through rough turbulence and high wind and seatbelt signs came on...but omg I thought the end had come!

Can turbulence damage the plane? :ooh:

[Paracab]

Can turbulence damage the plane?
In extreme circumstances, yes. You are extremely unlikely to encounter such circumstances though.
Try a little search, I'm quietly confident that this question has been posed before.

[MrSoft]

Hi creamegg, where were you sitting? It can get a bit bouncy down the back of a 757 in weather.

As a bona fide amateur, I would cautiously suggest that the airframe has a tolerance for turbulence way beyond what you probably encountered.

Only once did I sit through turbulence bad enough to register (in my mind) as abnormal. They stopped the meal service but had already stuck my tray down. Incredibly bouncy climbout all the way up to our cruising level. In the meantime I was faced with BA afternoon tea, scones, jam and clotted cream :\ I couldn't even look at it.

Rodda's clotted cream as well - very sad.

I couldn't even hold my glass still and my arm was bouncing up and down like a cheerleader, totally out of control; champers in mid-air; never saw anything like it before or since.

My point is, even in this extremity, the crew were utterly, totally, 100% unperturbed.

Ever since that day, I have a new yardstick, and the whole thing doesn't even bother me.

[Avman]

Creamegg, I'm not a pilot and I may stand to be corrected, but generally, when in the cruise, the aircraft will be slowed down when encountering moderate to severe turbulence as a means of further reducing any potential stress on the airframe. Otherwise, as said above, today's aircraft can take a great amount of punishment. It actually feels a lot worse than it is. Finally, as also mentioned by MrSoft, sitting anywhere near the rear of an aircraft (any aircraft, not just the B757) will accentuate the effect of turbulence. Yes, it can be very unpleasant (especially if it goes on for lengthy periods) but rest assured that you are safe.

[creamegg]

Thanks everyone, I was further back in the plane and I did notice that although we arrived on time, during the flight it did say we may be late so obviously they did slow the plane down a little.

[Rollingthunder]

You pay extra for those kinds of rides at big amusement parks.

Came into YHZ once in moderate turbulance. The two flight attendants seated at the back would raise their arms and go Wheeee with every bump and shake.

[JEM60]

Had awful turbulence over the French Alpes with a thunderstorm underneath us. Meal suspended, evrybody including Cabin Crew locked down. Went on for 20 mins, banging everywhere, Monarch A.300. I have always, as someone else said,used this as a yardstick to judge turbulence. Despite many screams from pax, aircraft held together, and have flown many times since, with passengers screaming at tiny bumps in comparison with this. Don't worry folks, it isn't going to break!!!, and wings are meant to waggle in turbulence!!!

[TopBunk]

I remember going to LAX about 16 years ago in on of our BA 747-400's. I was sat in D zone (behind the wing, but not the most rearward cabin). In the vicinity of Greenland having just climbed to FL350 we encountered some unforecast turbulence which ended up as severe after about 10 minutes.

I reassured a pax travelling next to me that all would be fine, but the sight of the engine pylons oscillating and the wing tip travelling over a range of about 20 feet whilst twisting from root to tip was quite alarming!

Internally, anything not strapped down was bouncing off the roof panels (incl pax), and the sound of breaking glass resonated from the secured galleys.

About two minutes into this, the speedbrakes were extended and the aircraft turned off track and descended back to FL310, where peace returned.

After the event, as a pilot I offered my assistance to the cabin crew in the galley, several of who were very stressed and tearful.

Afterwards, I spoke with the flight crew (had a few beers in the Huntley that evening), and they relayed that in about 60 seconds they had 3 stall warnings and 3 overspeeds - the instruments were totally unreadable. The skipper confirmed it was the worst turbulence he had experienced in 30 years of longhaul flying.

I have certainly not experienced anything like it since, and as such am very wary of describing turbulence as being 'severe', when 99+% of the time it rarely exceeds 'moderate'.

[Crepello]

Friend of mine recalled a flight o'er the North Sea in a t-prop a few years ago. Seatbelt light went on, a few pax clipped in, PA crackles "ladies and gentlem..." at which point there was the resonating 'boom' of an airpocket, with the loss of a few dozen feet. He said you couldn't hear the rest of the announcement, as the sound of buckles fastening sounded like a machine gun.

My own experience in the lowly 152 is that light = moderate, moderate = better wear a hard hat, severe = grown man screaming, and anyone that tells you they survived "flying" a spancan through 'extreme' is not the kind of person who should meet your sister.

A belated Merry Christmas to all. :)

[bealine]

Airframes are indeed designed to withstand most things nature can throw at them.

The main danger to passengers comes from cabin baggage and loose objects (such as duty free bottles) which may fly around the cabin during violent turbulence.

I had the horror of meeting an inbound GB Airways aircraft from Alicante that had encountered the phenomenon known as "clear air turbulence" (where the aircraft hits turbulence without prior warning) and the cabin interior resembled a charnel house! Several of the passengers had been injured by duty free bottles flying around the cabin, and by the wheels of tumbling trolley bags!

For this reason, I was very surprised when the main airlines relaxed the weight limits on cabin bags - personally, after witnessing some pretty horrific looking injuries, I would have liked to have seen all trolley bags or rollaboards banned as carry-on baggage!

Commercial pressure, as always, wins!

[lexxity]

Clear air is hideous. Once did CMB-LHR and I can easily say it was the worst flight of my life. At one point the crew were lying on the floor being held down by pax leaning over their chairs with their hands on their backs to stop them flying up. Crew were gripping the under seat struts so hard there hands were white. According to the IFE trip display we lost 1500ft at one point and I have no reason to disagree with that. Naturally all service was suspended. The worst thing is this happened for hours. I am guessing it's due to warm air thermals over the Indian Ocean? All I know is that when we got to LHR the vast majority of the cabin either hugged each other or burst into tears as they exited the aircraft. One person even kissed the ground.

We got the train back to MAN. :O

Having flown through that even a scewball into Chicago seems tame.