Eli5: why isn’t a plane experiencing turbulence considered dangerous?
In: Engineering
It is dangerous if it’s severe but the amount of turbulence you normally experience during a flight is not a risk to the plane. It’s not going to damage the plane and even if it’s points the nose of the plane sharply downwards, there’s nothing to crash into. You’re 35,000 feet in the air. You literally have like 5 minutes of descent before you get back to the ground. It’s the equivalent of the small bumps you run over on the highway. A huge one could damage your car but you can go over small ones all day without issue.
The main risk of turbulence is people falling or the overhead compartments opening and having things fall out, which is why they will sometimes have you return to your seat when there is turbulence.
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