Nobody likes turbulence. If you’re a nervous flyer, a serious bout of it is enough to make you want to catch the bus next time.
But what exactly is turbulence? After 31 people on an Etihad Airways flight were injured last week, The National newspaper in Abu Dhabi asked a forecaster at Dubai international airport.
Here’s what he said:
“You’re looking at unstable air with up-and-down drafts within it. If the aircraft is going through a downdraft, you would feel almost weightless. As soon as [the aeroplane hits] normal air, it would be a very hard bump. Multiply that a lot within a thunderstorm and that’s turbulence. It’s bumpy air.”
As the newspaper explained, there is also clear-air turbulence, “caused by the coming together of moving areas of air and not indicated by clouds”.
There’s not a lot we can do about it — pilots, of course, try to avoid it when they can, but they often have to fly through it, or it catches them unaware.
The best thing passengers can do is make sure they have their seatbelts fastened at all times, even when the light isn’t on.
There’s a reason they tell you that.
