Severe Turbulence (plane, flight, suspended, luggage)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Coming into LAX from Mexico City once we encountered very severe turbulence due to a "storm" that was supposedly in the LA area. The plan was shaking very violently, enough to throw people up from their seats...if we didn't have our seatbelts on it would've been disaster as everyone would be flying all over the place. It was really scary and people were panicking a lot but I saw a documentary that planes are designed for this sort of thing, even so...it's a bit unnerving. That is the only time I have experienced such a thing.
The stress test all airplanes go through are insane. Any turbulance a passenger experiences and just about 99.9% of pilots puts the aircraft at about 0% chance of anything going wrong because of the turbulance. You are correct.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chatteress
That's ironic that you mentioned the rear weaving motions as I have found that sitting towards the rear is usually more tolerable versus the front and by the wings ... I deliberately select seats within the last few rows and my nerves during take-off has calmed.
Funny you say that because it is common knowledge in the aviation world that the back of the plane is the worst for people who get motion sickness or dont like turbulance. Right in the middle by the wings is the best just like the middle of a boat. The tail of a plane moves a lot. Naturally even in smooth air the tail wants to move, but airliners have a thing called a Yaw Damper which prevents the planes tail from swaying right to left at least it prevents the natural movement of it as the plane just wants to do it no matter what the conditions. Sitting in the back especially in windy conditions you should feel that yaw much more then anyone else in the plane and feel most bumps and things more.
Transatlantic is the worst turbulence, aside from thunderstorms near DFW!
The scariest thing I ever had happen was a wind shear. I bet we dropped 10,000 feet. Felt like I was floating. The whole plane was quiet and everyone was just looking around. A collective sigh of relief was heard when we stopped dropping. The pilot never said a word.
Transatlantic is the worst turbulence, aside from thunderstorms near DFW!
The scariest thing I ever had happen was a wind shear. I bet we dropped 10,000 feet. Felt like I was floating. The whole plane was quiet and everyone was just looking around. A collective sigh of relief was heard when we stopped dropping. The pilot never said a word.
10,000ft? Planes just don't drop like that usually a 500 foot drop makes national news. I'm sure it wasn't more then 100 feet or so maybe even that is extremely rare.
I was in what I'd call severe turbulance once. Probably 25 years ago. It must have been an Air Cal 737. Flying during Santa Ana winds from Sacramento to Orange County. It was a flight where the attendants sat buckled in and did not look like they were having a good time. People were throwing up and a couple of the overhead bins popped open and items fell out. I can remember putting the death grip on my arm rests. We were the last flight allowed to land at John Wayne that evening.
This was in the old days when the cockpit doors could be opened while the passengers de-planed. I congratulated the pilot on bringing us in safely and he gave me the look that said, "You have NO idea." Only time I was truly afraid in all my years of flying. I made my DH, who picked me up, go across the street to the Airporter Inn for something to steady my nerves.
10,000ft? Planes just don't drop like that usually a 500 foot drop makes national news. I'm sure it wasn't more then 100 feet or so maybe even that is extremely rare.
I don't know the exact fall. Looking out, we were WAY above the clouds. It wasn't straight down, but went down into the clouds within about 8 seconds. Very scary. Quite a long time ago before everything hit the news instantaneously. It was not fun and I have been a white knuckle flyer ever since.
10,000ft? Planes just don't drop like that usually a 500 foot drop makes national news. I'm sure it wasn't more then 100 feet or so maybe even that is extremely rare.
I question that. A 100-foot drop is hardly anything, and 500 feet isn't too unusual, at least not in the mountain states. I recall flying my own plane (PA24-250) over Omaha one afternoon at around 10,000 feet -- on autopilot with altitude hold -- and suddenly my airspeed had gone from around 150kts to 80kts with the nose pitched up. I released the autopilot, lowered the nose to a cruise climb attitude and notified Omaha approach of my situation. I dropped nearly 2000 feet before I was through it in a little over a minute. Strangely, it wasn't that rough, but it sure got my attention.
When flying through turbulence with my young kids years ago we'd play a little game called "rodeo rider". We'd whoop it up a little and laugh and they'd get a kick out of it -- like riding a bucking bronc.
Flying to Chicago and back in the early eighties. We flew through severe storms (we found out later there were tornado warnings around Chicago at the time) and we had some serious turbulence. I went from smashing my head on the overhead bin (I'm tall and even with the seat belt I was smacking into it) to being mashed into the seat.
The return flight was similar with the added fun of the landing. We approached our local airport from the southeast, which goes over a major intersection and the runway starts pretty close to it. Again, it was a rough ride. As we started to land the plane nosedived. I mean it just dropped straight down! I've not heard so many people scream in a plane before or since. The planes nose came up and we landed with barely a bump.
I asked a stewardess what happened and she told me the pilot was an ex navy pilot and still landed a plane like he was coming in on an aircraft carrier.
I spent quite a few years as a very nervous flier after those two trips.
I'll never forget the bad turbulence I experienced on a return flight from Italy 6 years ago. We were coming into Newark airport through a thunderstorm and the plane was all over the place and still going very fast when we approached the runway. When the plane slammed down, everyone screamed.
It's hard to explain how violent it was, but I seriously thought for two seconds that we were going to explode or something. I got that "calm" feeling that I now guess that people must get when they see their death coming and accept it. I was visibly fazed for the rest of the day and didn't fly again for 5 years (mostly because I didn't have to go anywhere, though!). To this day I still have a bit of a fear/dislike of flying, but my love of travel luckily outweighs it.
Location: The Chatterdome in La La Land, CaliFUNia
39,031 posts, read 23,091,909 times
Reputation: 36028
Quote:
Originally Posted by Doobage
I'll never forget the bad turbulence I experienced on a return flight from Italy 6 years ago. We were coming into Newark airport through a thunderstorm and the plane was all over the place and still going very fast when we approached the runway. When the plane slammed down, everyone screamed.
It's hard to explain how violent it was, but I seriously thought for two seconds that we were going to explode or something. I got that "calm" feeling that I now guess that people must get when they see their death coming and accept it. I was visibly fazed for the rest of the day and didn't fly again for 5 years (mostly because I didn't have to go anywhere, though!). To this day I still have a bit of a fear/dislike of flying, but my love of travel luckily outweighs it.
That sounds like a really traumatic experience ... My sister had a bad experience once when flying ... It wasn't turbulence though but a crazy pilot that deliberately turned the plane nearly upside down while cracking jokes. She was terrified of flying after that incident.
That sounds like a really traumatic experience ... My sister had a bad experience once when flying ... It wasn't turbulence though but a crazy pilot that deliberately turned the plane nearly upside down while cracking jokes. She was terrified of flying after that incident.
What a freak! Here's to hoping I never set foot on a plane while he's at the wheel...
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
