Extremely Severe Turbulence Sends People to Hospital

mshunter said:
It certainly does matter what a pilot thinks, even more important is what a pilot reports. Passengers look to pilots as an authority on this stuff, same as an FA. When they look scared, passengers should be to. When they don't look scared, no reason to be. It's a crews job to ease passengers fears, for the exact reasons you talk about.

IMO, all to often, pilots over report turbulence, but under prepare for it. When you know it's coming, sit their assess down, tell them it's coming, and that they need to stay seated AND buckled. When it isn't all that bad, as in your coffee hasn't spilled, it's not freaking moderate, it's just uncomfortable.
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aobt14 said:
You should be a reporter for CNN.
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I clearly didn't make my point the way I intended to.

I should have more clearly pointed out that I was talking about the derisive comments people made about the pax on THAT flight getting scared, and making judgments about how those people shouldn't have been scared.

I absolutely agree with @mshunter 's sentiments...fear is an irrational thing. I'm just saying we shouldn't poke fun at people because they're in a situation which is scary for them - you've got no way of living in someone else's skin, y'know?

As for CNN, I have a shred of self-respect, thankyouverymuch.
 
I've reported severe windshear/turbulence once before. It. Sucks. Our planes are made of sheet metal, and I would swear the whole damn thing was flexing around us. We got down to about 700agl, throttles absolutely firewalled, and just held altitude until we got out of it.

Plane was grounded for weeks. We sheared a bunch of engine and wing bolts, but a 35-year-old Lockheed got us home.
 
NewYorkophile said:
I've reported severe windshear/turbulence once before. It. Sucks. Our planes are made of sheet metal, and I would swear the whole damn thing was flexing around us. We got down to about 700agl, throttles absolutely firewalled, and just held altitude until we got out of it.

Plane was grounded for weeks. We sheared a bunch of engine and wing bolts, but a 35-year-old Lockheed got us home.
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That sounds absolutely terrifying.
 
GypsyPilot said:
I understand your point... This was a dangerous situation that caused injury. But this being an aviation forum, with a post titled "Extremely Severe Turbulence...", presumably posted by a pilot, I felt a correction in the definition was warranted.

.
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Yeah, I am not. Just an avid fan with 60 hours towards my private. Can't fly any more for medical reasons. Anyway, yeah, you should not assume because....;) Assuming, you donkey, starts crazy debates on YouTube about pedophilia you see. Seriously, I saw one the other day. Some guy says some 14 year old actress is hot, and people get in an uproar about him being a pervert. Come to find out the guy is 14. So, there's what assuming causes. :) Of course, I think you are brighter than most YouTube commenters because after all when it comes to that

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ChasenSFO said:
The most notable case of "extreme" turbulence in an airliner I can think of off the top of my head did actually happen in Japan. BOAC flight 911 was a 707 that got ripped to shreds by a wave of extreme turbulence. The tailfin got forced into the fuselage then ripped off along with all 4 engines, then split in half and fell into the mountains below. The turbulence was so bad that the pilot of an A-4 Skyhawk sent to go look for the wreckage right after the crash was quoted saying he "seriously thought the airplane was going to become unglued" and wasn't even sure how he survived and regained control, the plane was taken out of service upon landing.

An eerie thing about that crash is that the day before, a Canadian Pacific DC-8 balled up on landing in Haneda killing most on board and someone actually got a shot of BOAC 911 taxiing past the wreckage of the DC-8, who would have thought that soon everyone on board would be dead? People also shot the aircraft boarding with pax going up the airstairs and falling apart in the air before the crash.
081030_boac_01.jpg
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northwest_Airlines_Flight_705 also have this one over the Everglades in the 60s.
 
Hit severe before. It was smooth and out of nowhere, CAT. Lost around 800 ft in a second and back up 800/900 ft the next. Autopilot kicked off and plane was pushed almost inverted. This happened in rapid succession for about 20 seconds. Pulled some power back and lowered the nose. Altitude change helped big time. Pretty interesting flying when your only job is to keep the plane upright and even that's hard to do.
 
terdferg23 said:
Hit severe before. It was smooth and out of nowhere, CAT. Lost around 800 ft in a second and back up 800/900 ft the next. Autopilot kicked off and plane was pushed almost inverted. This happened in rapid succession for about 20 seconds. Pulled some power back and lowered the nose. Altitude change helped big time. Pretty interesting flying when your only job is to keep the plane upright and even that's hard to do.
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Maybe none of that is a big deal to you airline pilots, but to the cattle in the back the plane might as well be going down. That's what I might be thinking along with the rest of my fellow passengers. Of course, I hang out here, so I might not be so worried.
 
The regs define levels of turbulence, and there is not a lot of room for interpretation. I believe most pax would call moderate turbulence severe. Turbulence is defined in the AIM 7-1-23.
Although it is hard to tell without being there or having a point of reference, I would call this moderate occasional severe, of course I am not looking at the instruments. As a controller I am required to obtain reports of injuries or airframe damage if a report of severe turbulence is reported. If I receive more than one report in the same area then RVSM is suspended (I am not sure of the exact criteria, that is above my pay grade). In my limited experience I have never had a reported injury or damage due to turbulence, but if you can maintain positive control of the aircraft, it is moderate, even if the pax are yelling and drink service is suspended.

AIM 7-1-23
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publications/ATpubs/AIM/aim0701.html#aim0701.html.48
 
If we could just get United and Southwest to stop clogging center with endless pleas of where the light chop 'isn't' today. The first mention of moderate creates a prairie fire of ride anxiety.

The passengers were scared sh*tless for sure, but if you're gonna play airline, pilot or passenger, you're going to have some of this. All of this psychobabble to legitimize the fears of the poor passengers......give me a break. More post modern pussification. Let's make fear and danger against the law.
 
terdferg23 said:
Hit severe before. It was smooth and out of nowhere, CAT. Lost around 800 ft in a second and back up 800/900 ft the next. Autopilot kicked off and plane was pushed almost inverted. This happened in rapid succession for about 20 seconds. Pulled some power back and lowered the nose. Altitude change helped big time. Pretty interesting flying when your only job is to keep the plane upright and even that's hard to do.
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That'd scare the crap out of me.
 
cezzna said:
If we could just get United and Southwest to stop clogging center with endless pleas of where the light chop 'isn't' today. The first mention of moderate creates a prairie fire of ride anxiety.

The passengers were scared sh*tless for sure, but if you're gonna play airline, pilot or passenger, you're going to have some of this. All of this psychobabble to legitimize the fears of the poor passengers......give me a break. More post modern pussification. Let's make fear and danger against the law.
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"Moderate or greater intensity must be avoided." - FOM
 
Capt. Chaos said:
That always seemed normal riding into Kodiak.

I would consider it extreme when you can't keep your feet on the pedals, you're just hanging on to the yoke for dear life and the solid state gyro tumbles. Good times.
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I got hit so hard descending into PSP one night, the gauges were unreadable, I couldn't grab the power levers, everything was blurry, airspeed fluctuated 40-50 knots every few seconds, and the triple chime warnings were going off for lack of oil pressure. All that we had was a warning from ATC for moderate turbulence which was pretty standard for PSP. When we landed, blue juice on the ceiling in the lav, and a grown man in tears. We didn't know it was that bad.......
 
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