Can Turbulence Cause Planes to Crash?
- Ji Sung Lee
- Jun 13, 2024
- 3 min read
SQ321
On May 21st, a Singapore Airlines flight from London Heathrow to Singapore Changi (SQ321) met turbulence in the Irrawaddy Basin in Southern Myanmar, which caused several unbelted passengers and crew members to be flung into the air inside the aircraft. The flight’s altitude changed by more than 362 feet (110 meters) in 1 minute and reached a vertical speed of 1,664 feet per minute (fpm) (507 meters per minute) before dropping to -1,536 fpm (- 468 meters per minute) in a few seconds. For comparison, Everland’s T-Express located in Yongin, South Korea, has a total height of 183.8 ft (56.02 m), the tallest wooden roller coaster in the world. One passenger has died from this incident, due to a heart attack.
Turbulence
This raises a question in many people’s minds: can turbulence cause planes to crash? To answer this question—yes, it is possible. However, it is unlikely that such an occasion would happen.
Turbulence happens because of the irregular atmospheric activity that the aircraft goes through, which is analogous to irregular sea waves. These cause passengers in the aircraft to experience from 0.5G to 1.5G in terms of G-force. G-force measures how quickly something speeds or slows down relative to the Earth’s gravity. The normal gravitational force that we experience is 1G. A 0.5G means that we are experiencing half the gravity we normally experience, and 1.5G means half more.
Clear-Air Turbulence
The turbulence that SQ321 experienced is what is called clear-air turbulence (CAT), and the Federal Aviation Administration defines it as “sudden severe turbulence occurring in cloudless regions that causes violent buffeting of aircraft.” This makes it extremely hard for the pilot to anticipate whether the approaching air is unstable since no clear visual signs exist. Frequently, pilots hear air traffic control to go through the turbulence safely, such as slowing the plane down for a smoother ride through the air. Usually, the weather is bad or some visible atmospheric activity lets pilots foresee the turbulence. Such things are not available when an aircraft goes through CAT.
Even though CAT is not forecasted, because it happens at higher altitudes, the aircraft will be able to recover without going down in seconds, and most turbulence shares the same case. It’s very unlikely that a plane would go down because of a sudden gust of wind. This means that even if the pilot loses control of the aircraft for a moment, it would be able to recover easily.
So Are They Dangerous?
Turbulence can be dangerous as it might cause injuries to passengers and crew members, but not how nervous fliers might imagine it to be. Since crew members are usually the last ones to buckle up during turbulence, they face much more risk than passengers. Crew members might also experience second-degree burns due to hot water or coffee. Passengers usually become injured because their seatbelts are not buckled up, which is one of the reasons why crew members request passengers to wear their seatbelts at all times when seated. Even if passengers are buckled up, injuries might still happen, such as infants or elders who are more vulnerable to rapid fluctuation in gravitational force suffering a heart attack, which was the case for the single death in SQ321.
For easier visualization, 12 passengers and 5 crew members suffered injuries from turbulence in 2017. 2.5 million passengers fly in and out of American airports in a day.
Rising Frequencies of Turbulences
We have been seeing turbulences more than ever since. Due to global warming, layers of the atmosphere are being easily disrupted. Especially, unexpected changes to the air without any visual signs (CAT) would also double their frequency affecting the pilots’ control over the aircraft more than before, in routes such as San Francisco-Tokyo, and New York-London.
Modern-day technology and engineering help passengers avoid the risk of turbulence as much as possible, and the chance of anything happening due to turbulence is very low. Ultimately, even with the threat of turbulence, air travel is still safer than any other mode of transportation. Next time going through turbulence, enjoy the thrill instead of worrying about it.
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