No matter how seasoned a flier you are, turbulence knocking you around can send your heart into
your throat.
It’s rarely fatal, but still: what’s the deal with airplane turbulence?
Hey guys, Amy here with you on DNews.
If you’ve ever flown in an airplane, you’ve probably felt turbulence, that disconcerting
shaking that makes you feel like you’re about to fall out of the sky.
So aside from scary, what is turbulence?
Turbulence is usually the result of jet streams.
Jet Streams are the fast, narrow currents of air that travel around our planet.
They can sometimes be thousands of miles long, but they’re usually only a few miles wide
and deep.
We know, more or less, where the jet streams are and in what direction they’re traveling,
and flight planners either send a plane flying against a jet stream (fly into a headwind)
or with a jet stream (fly with a tailwind) on a commercial flight.
But like a river hitting the river bank, jet streams interact with slower moving air.
And this mixing of air traveling at two different speeds causes a kind of turbulence called
Clear Air Turbulence because, well, you can’t see it.
When a plane flies on a heading that takes it through this mixing air, it hits turbulence.
And the danger of Clear Air Turbulence is that it can come out of nowhere.
It’s also possible for an airplane to hit turbulence when flying in the wake of another
airplane, though this usually affects a smaller plane flying behind larger planes.
An airplane whips up air in its wake, and flying through that air can make for a bumpy
ride.
And of course flying through stormy weather with winds whipping all around can also lead
to a turbulent flight.
The good news?
Turbulence just feels scarier than it is.
It’s easy to imagine, on a turbulent flight, that you’re in a dinghy being battered around
by a stormy sea, but a plane isn’t a boat.
Turbulence can either be mild, moderate, or severe.
When it’s moderate, the plane’s altitude, bank angle, and pitch might vary by a few
tens of feet, but any change in its heading, its direction of travel, will be barely noticeable.
Planes are designed to return to their original position in space if knocked to the side by
winds.
Severe turbulence can knock service carts over and send you flying out of your seat
if you aren’t wearing your seatbelt.
In fact, that’s actually where you’re going to run into trouble.
If the plane is bouncing around and you’re not wearing your seatbelt, you could be thrown
hard enough to get hurt.
But turbulence alone isn’t going to make an airplane plummet.
Airframes are engineered to meet stress limits of both positive and negative G-loads.
The wings will flex, but that’s a good thing.Turbulence strong enough to dislodge an engine or snap
a wing is something most travelers and pilots won’t experience in their lifetimes.
So it’s really just a comfort issue.
Pilots study weather charts, radar data, and real-time reports from other aircraft to avoid
turbulence so you can have that coffee in a cup and not on your lap.
But still, it’s best to keep that seatbelt fastened for when Clear Air Turbulence strikes.
So, do you guys have any horror stories of terrifyingly turbulent flights?
Let us know in the comments below or you can find me and let me know directly on Twitter
as @astVintageSpace.
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