United Turbulence Event

[Aeroscout840]

Outstanding blog post detailing the mountain wave conditions thought to be the cause.

http://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2014/02/the-terrifying-turbulent-flight-of.html

From the comments section this fascinating bit.

"At the same time as this event, a glider flew from Minden, NV to Casper, WY using the same mountain wave conditions. The flight was over 940 st.mi., in just over 10 hrs. They will be claiming a new US distance record for multiplace gliders. They were lower, 12K' to 26K'.
A retired NWS forecaster in Cal. was their ground support for the flight and has some info on his blog:

http://scriptogr.am/wrogerswx/post/boettger-downwind-record-flight-minden-to-south-dakota-02-17-2014

 

[belgiumania]

Nice, Cliff Mass is great and he is a bit of a legend around the PNW for his blog and forecasting skills.

Truthfully this could have happened to just about anyone that day. The day before I was dealing with mod mtn wave above FL300 with mod turb below that through all of MT, WY, and ID. Damned if you do, damned if you don't type of dispatching. Those days you just have to do your best to plan, brief your crew, update them enroute and hope they're paying enough attention to keep everyone strapped in tight.

Sucks for all involved on that flight, I wish all the best to the injured FA.