Achi news desk-
At least one person was killed and dozens injured when a Singapore Airlines flight hit turbulence on Tuesday, renewing questions about how turbulence can affect air travel and what safety measures can be taken to avoid injury.
It is not yet known what exactly caused the death of the 73-year-old man on that flight or whether it was directly related to turbulence, but passengers have reported that the plane descended suddenly and caused some passengers to be launched to the ceiling, leaving dents in the luggage holds above.
That’s why former Transport Canada aviation safety inspector Jock Williams says it might seem like a simple guideline, but it’s essential to keep your seat belt fastened throughout the flight.
“You can be sitting in your seat and your seat belt is as tight as you can comfortably get it. That way you can’t be thrown against the overheads,” he said. “But anyone walking around freely takes the speed the plane is going – it’s just that it’s going towards the roof.”
When people fly, they may notice uneven conditions as a flight passes through a piece of turbulence. Most are minor, and airlines have made steady improvements to reduce turbulence accident rates over time.
Turbulence is the irregular movement of air, which results from eddies and vertical currents, according to the National Weather Service, and usually comes from heavy storms or flying over mountain ranges.
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Pilots often try to avoid such turbulence by flying around storms or through other plot courses.
What can be difficult, if not impossible to avoid, is what is known as clear air turbulence, which is often found in or near the high rivers of air known as jet streams. The culprit is ‘wind shear’, when two huge air masses close together move at different speeds. If that’s big enough, the atmosphere can’t handle the stress and it breaks into turbulent patterns.
“When you get strong wind shear near the jet stream, it can cause the air to overturn. And that creates these chaotic motions in the air,” Thomas Guinn, chair of the department of applied aviation sciences at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, told The Associated Press.
The problem for pilots, Williams told Global News, is that it is very difficult to know if or when they will hit such turbulence.
“It’s impossible to avoid unless someone has already hit it and warned you, because you can’t see it. It doesn’t show up on radar, it doesn’t show any mechanism we have in the cockpit to avoid it,” said Williams.
Turmoil-related injuries can be difficult to track globally, but some countries such as the United States and Canada publish data.
In Canada, the Transportation Safety Board told Global News that 56 incidents have been reported since 2015, with nine involving serious injuries. However, none have involved fatalities, although the TSB noted one incident – an Air Canada flight in December 2015 – that required investigation when several passengers were not wearing their seat belts.
The National Transportation Safety Board in the United States says that 163 people were injured seriously enough to require hospital treatment for at least two days between 2009 and 2022.
Geoffrey Thomas, an analyst with airline safety and product rating site Airlineratings.com, told Reuters in the wake of the Singapore Airlines incident that at least changes should be made to seat belts on board.
“Airlines that say, ‘We recommend that you keep your seat belt fastened when seated,’ should be saying that it is mandatory to keep your seat belt fully fastened,” Thomas said.
Can climate change affect turbulence?
Some scientists note that reports of turbulent encounters are on the rise.
There are a number of possible explanations for that, but several researchers have drawn attention to the possible effects on the climate.
Guinn explained that some predict that climate change could alter the jet stream and up the wind shear, which would consequently cause turbulence.
In a statement to the Associated Press on Tuesday, Paul Williams, professor of atmospheric science at the University of Reading in England, said there is “strong evidence that turbulence is increasing due to climate change.”
Williams said his research team found in 2023 that severe clear air turbulence in the North Atlantic had increased by 55 percent since 1979, for example.
The team’s latest projections indicate that severe turbulence in the jet streams could double or triple in the coming decades if global conditions continue as expected, he said.
–with files from The Associated Press and Reuters
& copy 2024 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
