In December of 2022, Flight UA1722 from Maui to San Francisco was reported by media to have plunged half of its altitude in a matter of seconds due to severe turbulence. Just last week, a Lufthansa flight from Austin, TX to Germany reportedly fell thousands of feet, sending seven people to the hospital for injuries after an emergency landing.
Is this just sensationalized reporting by the media, or do commercial jets actually plummet from the sky and recover just before crashing? Why and how does this happen?
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In short, the wings of an airplane float over the air just like a boat over water. Turbulence is a disruption of this air. Think of it like large rogue waves in the ocean that can capsize a ship. It can cause a plane to drop dramatic altitude and shake.
It’s very scary to some people, but the odds of crashing are lower than getting into a car accident. Once the plane flies out of the turbulence, the air will stabilize and the wings will regain its lift. You’re safe.
Turbulence means you meet air that goes fast in a strange direction, and maybe downward. So yea a strong wind down will carry you down. It’s extremely rare the wind is steady for miles, so meeting a down wind is something short, and followed by a wind sideways or upward… this means that you won’t fall down much, you are blown around, but in average, you are not blown in a specific direction.
Something that does happen more often is the pilot fly down or up or whatever to try get out the turbulent area.More likely you are flown down half your altitude to get out of an high altitude turbulence, this is way more likely than being blown down thousand of feet.
This said, 1000 feet is not much, you can be moved down 1000 feet by wind, the problem in this case is how high are you, being blown 1000 feet down when you fly at 1500 is of course serious and scary. But don’t worry, the worse winds are not usually close to ground and if that’s the case, they tend to be very small in dimension, so you “poke a hole in it”.
Turbulence means you meet air that goes fast in a strange direction, and maybe downward. So yea a strong wind down will carry you down. It’s extremely rare the wind is steady for miles, so meeting a down wind is something short, and followed by a wind sideways or upward… this means that you won’t fall down much, you are blown around, but in average, you are not blown in a specific direction.
Something that does happen more often is the pilot fly down or up or whatever to try get out the turbulent area.More likely you are flown down half your altitude to get out of an high altitude turbulence, this is way more likely than being blown down thousand of feet.
This said, 1000 feet is not much, you can be moved down 1000 feet by wind, the problem in this case is how high are you, being blown 1000 feet down when you fly at 1500 is of course serious and scary. But don’t worry, the worse winds are not usually close to ground and if that’s the case, they tend to be very small in dimension, so you “poke a hole in it”.
While it is possible for downdrafts to cause an airplane to lose substantial altitude, this is rare. Injuries from turbulence usually occur when atmospheric disturbances are strong enough to cause significant downward *acceleration* followed by sudden upward *acceleration*. The downward acceleration lifts unsecured passengers out of their seats, then the sudden upward acceleration slams them back down again, usually after they rotate to awkward orientations. In such cases, the airplane may have gained or lost fewer than 100 feet in altitude.
Turbulence means you meet air that goes fast in a strange direction, and maybe downward. So yea a strong wind down will carry you down. It’s extremely rare the wind is steady for miles, so meeting a down wind is something short, and followed by a wind sideways or upward… this means that you won’t fall down much, you are blown around, but in average, you are not blown in a specific direction.
Something that does happen more often is the pilot fly down or up or whatever to try get out the turbulent area.More likely you are flown down half your altitude to get out of an high altitude turbulence, this is way more likely than being blown down thousand of feet.
This said, 1000 feet is not much, you can be moved down 1000 feet by wind, the problem in this case is how high are you, being blown 1000 feet down when you fly at 1500 is of course serious and scary. But don’t worry, the worse winds are not usually close to ground and if that’s the case, they tend to be very small in dimension, so you “poke a hole in it”.
While it is possible for downdrafts to cause an airplane to lose substantial altitude, this is rare. Injuries from turbulence usually occur when atmospheric disturbances are strong enough to cause significant downward *acceleration* followed by sudden upward *acceleration*. The downward acceleration lifts unsecured passengers out of their seats, then the sudden upward acceleration slams them back down again, usually after they rotate to awkward orientations. In such cases, the airplane may have gained or lost fewer than 100 feet in altitude.
While it is possible for downdrafts to cause an airplane to lose substantial altitude, this is rare. Injuries from turbulence usually occur when atmospheric disturbances are strong enough to cause significant downward *acceleration* followed by sudden upward *acceleration*. The downward acceleration lifts unsecured passengers out of their seats, then the sudden upward acceleration slams them back down again, usually after they rotate to awkward orientations. In such cases, the airplane may have gained or lost fewer than 100 feet in altitude.
I would take this opportunity to remind people to stay buckled in THROUGHOUT the flight, unless they are going to the toilet, because this can happen at any time.
I would take this opportunity to remind people to stay buckled in THROUGHOUT the flight, unless they are going to the toilet, because this can happen at any time.
I would take this opportunity to remind people to stay buckled in THROUGHOUT the flight, unless they are going to the toilet, because this can happen at any time.
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