Wake turbulence - routine or something to worry about?
A few years ago I was flying from BFS to LTN, to be precise on Easyjet Flight 168 on 22nd December 2005. Somewhere over the Liverpool area or thereabouts we encountered wake turbulence. The effect was quite dramatic, difficult to describe, but maybe the equivalent of 20 seconds of severe ordinary turbulence crammed into 2 or 3 seconds. Or a bit like being dropped from a height onto a bouncy surface.
I have to commend my fellow passengers as their universal reaction was stunned silence. After what seemed like five or ten minutes (no doubt to give him time to check everything was OK) the pilot announced that we had passed through the wake of a 747.
Is this routine, or was it a near miss? Is this level of wake turbulence dangerous or well within the safety parameters of a 737?