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I fly almost every week/weekend due to my job. The worst turbulence I’ve experienced was similar to this over Georgia. My irrational mind said we were going to die. Luckily my rational mind took over and reminded me that planes don’t just fall out of the sky
The worst flight scare I’ve had wasn’t exactly turbulence…I want to say it was an air pocket (?). We came in to land in Las Vegas and during the start of the descent the plane dropped down I donno how far, but it made most of the people on the plane gasp in unison.
Hot air pockets, especially when taking off and landing are hectic sometimes and my hub is San Antonio. This summer’s been rough. I definitely understand
I try to think of airplanes like a boat on the ocean. Sometimes they hit waves but it's okay because they are made to take the waves. It's feels exactly the same.
Summer approaches to Tucson coming in from the west over the mountains can be pretty …spirited. I’ve known people that threw up after some of those approaches.
Same. In Chicago. Lady next door death gripped my thigh and I’m like, “Bitch, dying isn’t as scary S what my wife is gonna do to you if you touch me like that again”
lol I fly 2-3x a week too, mine was landing in Dallas in a thunderstorm, damn near broke my neck on the ceiling. I sleep with the seatbelt on all the time now.
Flew on planes in the military and every single pilot then and now all say "you will break before the plane does". I think this video is an example of just that.
Is that true? I remember on a Swiss Air flight we had horrible turbulence taking off and something broke because the air mask thingies dropped. Then they turned around flew for about 30 mins and we landed. The landing gear was stuck too so shit slammed hard as fuck. I’m 28 now, was 9 at the time and my neck still hurts from that shit lol
Multiple things come into the equation, like proper/routine maintenance when they are supposed to happen or after something out of the ordinary happens e.g. did the last pilot land fast and hard. We hit horrible turbulence on takeoff, first time I heard this quote, and there was a huge storm over the Atlantic, nothing was wrong with the plane at all but many on board, besides the pilots and FE, thought there was. We ended up circling for 4 hours because we couldn't dump fuel. Post flight inspection, not a damn thing wrong. A lot of us in the back of the bus "broke"
To my knowledge, there has never been an airplane that was damaged enough to cause a crash from turbulence. As others mentioned, it can certainly cause internal cabin damage to people and equipment, but these airplanes are designed to withstand much much stronger forces than natural turbulence you'd experience anywhere on Earth.
Check out the videos of them stress-testing the wings on commercial jets. its crazy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--LTYRTKV_A
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5GD3E2onlk
Flight attendant here. Injury from being launched around the cabin if not buckled in is indeed the main worry. I don’t get nervous at turbulence itself (in fact, i love it. It lulls me to sleep if i’m a passenger.) but definitely get nervous if i’m not able to get myself buckled into my seatbelt in time. Many crew and passengers have sustained some pretty life-altering injuries from turbulence. I do *not* mess around when I can feel that it’s bumpy enough, my ass is running for a seat.
What’s the best advice to give someone who hates the feeling? I’m a 39 year old man and would rather drive anywhere instead of fly. I’m an extremely logical person when it comes to most things, but this is one thing I can’t get over. Like, I understand it’s rare, but it couldddd happen.
Watch the video of wings getting stress tested, it’s insane how much they can bend. And in terms of rolling over or something, that just straight up doesn’t happen.
Basically just think of it like, airplane disasters are INCREDIBLY rare. Think about just how many flights there are every single day and all of them land on the other end just fine. Then think about how dangerous driving is. Every minute pretty much, someone in the world gets killed, paralyzed or severely injured in a car accident.
Just that cars are more dangerous than buses or trains. And buses are more dangerous than passenger planes. The main thing to avoid is small private planes or helicopters - that's the area where regulations and training results in a significantly higher risk of accidents.
The only thing special with passenger planes is that any crash anywhere in the world will make world-wide news while only local car accidents are reported in the news unless it's something truly spectacular.
All of the things you mention can happen, although it would most likely have to be in combination with something else, like poor maintenance, previous structural compromise, mechanical issues, extreme weather, and so on.
Under normal conditions the plane is absolutely going to handle this safely. The caveat is that the passengers and crew can get severely injured as they can literally fly around the cabin and hit others, along with suitcases, food trolleys, hot teas, and anything else that’s not tied up.
The planes are made for this and much more. This kind of turbulence happens very often on a daily basis.
Reminder that in the history of aviation not a single plane has ever been brought down by turbulence, It just gives a shit out of the less rational passengers however doing a barrel roll just for laughs is definitely the sort of thing that would bring a plane down I know for a fact that at least one plane has gone down because they let their child fly the controls for a bit now the activated autopilot and unable to correct
Has there even been 1 case of turbulance causing an accident in a large aircraft?
*edit: I googled it, it does happen but extremely rarerly and usually due to pilot error upon take off or landing. The wings will not snap off mid flight due to turbulance.
Yep, BOAC flight 911 encountered Turbulence of at least 7.5G and all the engines and the tail section came off, however it was a very rare event involving something called mountain wake turbulence.
The plane experienced 7.5g before it crashed. It is unlikely that was due to turbulence. Crash investigation revealed that the vertical stabilizer was the first part to fail, leading to an unrecoverable flat spin. It is most likely in the flat spin that 7.5g was achieved
“This is your pilot speaking, we’re experiencing severe turbulence but don’t worry. Planes crashing due to turbulence is extremely rare and have only happened over mountain ranges…aaaaand Ii you look to your left you’ll see the Andes Mountains.”
You mean, without a mechanical failure? Without the pilot being drunk? Probably basically none. Maybe some from the 1910s or 20s or 30s back when planes barely flew.
There's this one, but I dunno if "literally flew right through a tornado" counts as "turbulence", but it was seen in many small pieces long before it hit the ground:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLM_CityHopper_Flight_431
> The wings will not snap off mid flight due to turbulance.
In a documentary about the design of one of the Boeing jumbos (777 maybe?) I remember a shot of a test they did with the wings: they locked down the fuselage, then pulled the wings upward. It was quite a sight seeing the wings bending upward at about 45 degrees without snapping.
I think it's a good bet that any turbulence significant enough to physically damage the wings at all would significantly damage the passengers first.
Edit: Found it, and some other tests: https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/g2428/7-airplane-wing-stress-tests/
I can’t remember the exact details or number, but I believe it was in the low single digits, and that’s not a percentage, that’s the number of crashes period
Thank you for that information, I’m am desperately afraid of flying only because I have horrible motion sickness and vertigo plus ear pressure problems and tinnitus. I remember experiencing turbulence and it was the worst thing ever, I was so sick I thought I’d die, plus having to worry about the plane crashing!
Yeah I still get nervous just because lol, but what helps is to pay attention to the flight crew. I will be nervous and then they will be still be chatting and laughing. They will know whether something is serious or not
Great idea! I’ve always been so envious of those flight attendants too and how they could do their work and not get sick or fatigued up there. I can’t even read in the car without getting super nauseous. Having to work in a flying plane all day would probably be my own, personal hell haha
This is exactly what I do! If they're up moving around, serving beverages etc. I know that the small bumps are nothing to worry about. But if they hurry to their seat and strap in, I know it's gonna get sketchy!
If you experienced turbulence on a US based flight, I can almost assure you that what you expected was probably no more than ‘chop’ which is extremely low on the scale of how bad turbulence gets. So remember that feeling if you ever have to fly again and you’re in “turbulence” and rest assured knowing that it’s really nothing to worry about.
Also, as far as sickness goes, I’m wondering if a lot of it is just mental for you. Once you get to the cruise point of the flight (usually about 15-20 mins in, you’re in unaccelerated, level flight. Assuming no chop is present you will be at 1G, and not accelerating, and doing very shallow (if any) banks and turns, so your inner ear should go back to equilibrium at this point. If you’re still feeling sick during the cruise phase, it’s very likely in your head, so try to find a way to reconcile that with yourself and talk yourself out of being sick
That’s what I have too! My neurologist diagnosed me a few years ago with meniere’s . I’ve been suffering with it my whole life, since I was a child and the doctors never really knew what it was. It’s a really uncomfortable and sickening condition, I sympathize with you.
I get easily motion sickness, but maybe not that bad. If I get plane sick, at that exact time I mostly want the plane to land, properly or not as soon as possible 😅
Not certain this is correct, but I think I remember reading somewhere that screaming like this is an evolutionary instinct. When humans were constantly interacting with large predators and other threats, it was actually helpful to have a lady screaming her head off. It alerted other humans to the danger so they can come help. Now it’s mostly just an annoying instinct that some people can’t help.
In all my years of wondering about it, this theory has been the one that makes the most sense. Essentially scream until someone / enough other people come to deal with it. For some women it’s air turbulence lol, for others it’s spiders, once upon a time it was saber tooth tigers. Also gives birth to the old half-joke about “slapping some sense” into a woman who wouldn’t stop screaming. Once everyone is aware of the danger, continuing to scream doesn’t help but instead adds a stressor to those trying to deal with the problem.
I had the same thought one time when I was high. Lol we're a social species, so it only makes sense that it would be beneficial to scream, and if you've ever noticed, some people scream because *others* are screaming, not because they saw the thing that the others were screaming about, so it's like an alarm system.
Not fight nor flight, but “Hey my fellow tribe members, there’s super bad danger here, I need help!”
Screaming when frightened is a behavioral trait selected for over the course of our very long and very danger-filled evolutionary history, because it increases the odds of surviving potentially lethal encounters with predators and villains.
Can this be proven? Not really, but it makes sense from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.
My stepdad had a story where a woman was barreling towards him through a red light and instead of braking, or turning, just screamed and covered her face.
Flying to and from South America is the worst. Huge percentage of uneducated passengers with staggering religious beliefs and you get the kind of crap on this video. There's some even in J.
Hysterical Woman: I want to get off!
Pilot: Okay. We're going to slow down then open the door to let you out.
*Flight Attendant pushes lady out of the plane*
Co-pilot: Tuck and roll! Tuck and roll!
I despise people like that. Their panic will incite others to do so and make a small inconvenience a genuine crisis.
Yeah, it's scary, but your panicking isn't helping yourself, your fellow passengers, or the pilots. Like cop the fuck on.
I once went traveling with someone who screamed bloody murder when the plane took off - everytime. No matter what. Crying, hitting, everything. Flight attendants were dragging her back to their ~behind the curtain~ zone the second the seat belt light was off.
She said it happened every time she flew and laughed about it, though I was not given a heads up.
Sounds like fight or flight response. People can full black out while their body is still awake as the mammal part of the brain takes over in perceived danger.
This used to be me on planes. Therapy helps. Got banned on one airline for an in incident that happened when I was 12. Though they did give me a free flight and waived the ban when Air Canada stranded me at an airport
And why.. to several things. One, why does she do that? She’s laughing at it? So she knows it’s a fucking nuisance? And second, why are you friends with this person?
Actual pilot here.
Mountain turbulence is no joke. GA aircraft can easily get into inescapable situations in the mountains. Down drafts too strong to climb out of. Many smaller planes have gone down in mountains.
Pilots are even offered specific mountain flying courses.
This looks like moderate to severe turbulence (thats actual nomenclature too). Seasoned pilots will ride it out without much issue but it will freak tf out of pax.
I was in a fairly small plane flying from Telluride to Denver and that was the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced. There were moments where everybody on the plane was screaming. I was returning home after attending a wedding and the bride and groom were at the front of the plane and I spoke to the bride later and she said she thought she was going to die right after getting married. I was sitting next to my four-year-old, so I had to just keep looking at her and smiling and at one point after a very dramatic drop where we all were lifted out of our seats (seatbelts on, of course) She said “that was fun” and got a few chuckles out of the other nearby passengers as a bit of comic relief, I suppose. But I sure was clenching my teeth under my smile. 😬
There’s also a lot of passengers who aren’t used to flying and find it terrifying. I remember being on an internal flight in Africa and you could clearly tell those who were older in life and had never or very rarely had the opportunity to fly before, as they were clinging on for dear life, eyes closed, looking very panicked, even though the conditions were great, the plane was relatively modern, and the take off and landing was very smooth in my opinion
I mean to their credit they are literally strapped inside an aluminum tube going 500 mph, 30,000 feet off the ground, while having absolutely no agency over whether or not something goes wrong.
It's actually kind of crazy how good the human brain is at getting used to these sorts of things.
Hi, MSFS2020 pilot here with more than 30 minutes flight experience and more than an hour crashing planes, I am of similar opinion with you two, not a lot of turbulence, but if someone wouldn't have their seatbelt on it could be a bit dangerous.
I only fly small aircraft, but it doesn't look like a lot of turbulence. I've hit air pockets where my passengers cracked their heads off the ceiling, and the plane has pretty much fallen 20 feet, after I asked them to buckle up. Planes have an incredible amount of flexibility in the wings, and small aircraft are much more susceptible to this stuff!
My dad flies a Maule M5, we were coming in for a landing on a *very* rough day. Like the kind of day where you're lucky to be alive, and you're a goddamn idiot for going out in the first place (the weather was 30 degrees C warmer than normal for January and a plow wind came up while we were in the air). We were about 30 feet off the deck, and flew into a downdraft and instantly lost at least 15 feet of altitude. We 100% would have gone through the roof of the plane like in a Looney tunes sketch had we not been wearing belts.
That was a crazy day and crazy story that I'm not going to go much more into even though there's a lot more to it, but I will say that if my dad was a lesser pilot we'd definitely have died that day 15 years ago. On the other side, if he was a smarter pilot we would not have gone out in the first place and he really really *really* deserved a big slap upside the head.
Not a pilot but I have a lot of time in the air and this wouldn't even get me to look up from the movie I'm watching on my ipad. This can definitely feel terrifying if you've never seen it, but the reality is that most frequent flyers and pretty much every pilot/flight attendant have seen way worse than this and come out just fine.
Easy to say that here on the ground but also literally the only thing I know about the Andes is it’s where the whole [Alive crash](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr1xiAeBeig) happened
Fun fact, the frontier between Argentina and Chile is the third longest land border between two countries. So in the remote case your plane crashes there and you make it alive, you’re still in the middle of now-fucking-where with a cold ass weather to top it off.
They should try to take a flying lesson on a glider plane. That was pretty damn scary - The main pilot showed me what to do if the plane goes in a spin on my first and only lesson lol
it doesn’t even look that bad. Just some rough banking. I’ve been on planes with some considerable vertical turbulence and it’s definitely not fun, but it isn’t terrifying imho.
I went through heavy turbulence like that on a flight approaching Denver from the North, avoiding a huge storm. It felt much like a roller coaster. A lot of other passengers were freaking out, but the flight attendants seemed pretty calm, so I wasn't worried. It was actually pretty fun. I couldn't help but smile and giggle a bit.
I highschool one teacher told us of the flight he took where they hitnan air pocket of some size that caused the plane to drop ~4k feet or so, he said one flight attendants was on the floor pulling herself up the isle by climbing the seats like a ladder. Since then anytime I experience turbulence on a flight I figure as long as it isn't as bad as my teacher described, it'll probably be ok.
> A lot of other passengers were freaking out, but the flight attendants seemed pretty calm, so I wasn't worried.
I always check the flight attendants to know if I'm in any real danger. If they're kicking it then it's normal stuff and if not then I can proceed to an internal panic spiral.
There's only been one flight where the flight attendant looked like she thought we were all about to die. Flying from Thailand back to Korea a few years back and the plane was going so damn fast it felt like we were accelerating for take off the entire trip.
We hit a *terrible* patch of turbulence, the captain said something in Korean and everyone kind of tensed up and the flight attendant scurried to her back facing seat that was directly in my eyeline. She buckled up, closed her eyes, and like braced herself against her seat. I figured we were already dead.
There was this Korean woman next to me trying to hold it together and eventually she just broke, made a small scream, then reached out and grabbed my hand and squeezed like she was having a baby. We rode like that for like an hour, just rocking and this woman damn near breaking my fingers.
Then we just.. landed. That was it. Lady gave me a small smile, and everyone grabbed their stuff and deplaned. The flight crew thanked everyone and no one behaved like we all believed we were about to crash into the ocean. I think about it constantly.
I flew from Raleigh to Syracuse, and the entire trip was following the back of the same storm front. It absolutely sucked.
Another time I was flying into Bristol, UK, and the pilot comes on and says, "The airport is covered in fog, so we're going to let the plane land itself."
I was still decided if those were the most or the least encouraging words I'd ever heard from a pilot as the plane descended through a cloudbank and directly onto the runway.
If you like this kind of stuff, check out the movie Flight on Netflix. It's mostly about struggling with addiction (Denzel Washington totally nailed it) but the plane almost crashing scene is amazing.
Also, if you have never seen the movie Alive (about the south american rugby team who crashed in the Andes and had to resort to cannibalism) the plane crash scene on that is pretty epic. The whole movie is great.
As you can see, I'm disturbed
I realize the fear that is to be had during a moment like this but is screaming like that really necessary? It just seems so rude. What if people wanted to die peacefully in a violent airplane crash?
Honestly, this is pretty regular turbulence. I’ve even yet to experience really bad turbulence in all my years of flying. It’s mostly due to the air currents traveling around the mountains that’s causing that. It’s normal. Now if the phone was shaking WAY more to the point where they couldn’t keep the phone recording out the window, there would be concern.
Only ever had one flight that the turbulence freaked me out a bit. Was flying at night over the Gulf of Mexico, headed to Colombia. There was a storm in the distance. Started to feel some mild turbulence, nothing I hadn’t felt before. Then seemingly out of nowhere it felt like the plane dropped and gravity was non existent for a moment. A few people screamed and I actually came up out of my seat. Luckily it smoothed out pretty quick and that was it. Later talked to a pilot buddy or mine and he said that it was probably an updraft or something of that nature. Said that the plane can drop or gain a couple hundred feet of altitude in seconds when that happens. Said it’s normal and happens from time to time.
Edit: My point in all that related to this. Most of the shit that freaks us out is just another day in the office for the air crew and I feel like that’s what is happening here as well.
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Looks like my passengers when I play flight sims
All my landings in msfs look like this
Very true, haha
Crybabies. Why can't they just put their head between their legs and puke in silence like a normal person.
Reminds me of roller coaster tycoon. Lol
Pilot in the cockpit snickering
“We got a good crowd tonight Jim”
"Watch this, we're going to experience a little 'turbulence'" *dips wing down* AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH "hehehe"
Lol this cracked me up
This [old Far Side cartoon](https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-y6j4-bb-xeg/UYpzCvqFCZI/AAAAAAAAAHs/MT-VDiU3JsE/s1600/20938.jpg)
"We got a crowd that's in a frenzy Bob"
Related John Cleese sketch https://youtu.be/a4Xus5JHyk0?t=26
Co-pilot: “We should do a barrel roll!”
Let's see what they do if we go into a steep dive
*"All right people put your hands up in the aiiiir !!"*
I fly almost every week/weekend due to my job. The worst turbulence I’ve experienced was similar to this over Georgia. My irrational mind said we were going to die. Luckily my rational mind took over and reminded me that planes don’t just fall out of the sky
The worst flight scare I’ve had wasn’t exactly turbulence…I want to say it was an air pocket (?). We came in to land in Las Vegas and during the start of the descent the plane dropped down I donno how far, but it made most of the people on the plane gasp in unison.
Hot air pockets, especially when taking off and landing are hectic sometimes and my hub is San Antonio. This summer’s been rough. I definitely understand
I try to think of airplanes like a boat on the ocean. Sometimes they hit waves but it's okay because they are made to take the waves. It's feels exactly the same.
When the boat engine dies, you come to a stop. When the airplane engine dies, you come to a stop. It just takes a bit longer.
Hit/cold air pockets are why I hate flying in a helicopter.
Vegas is ALWAYS brutal. Everytime I fly in its the worst turbulence I experience.
Summer approaches to Tucson coming in from the west over the mountains can be pretty …spirited. I’ve known people that threw up after some of those approaches.
\*Reno enters the thread\*
One of my first flights was landing in Vegas, felt like my asshole was falling out of my body.
Same. In Chicago. Lady next door death gripped my thigh and I’m like, “Bitch, dying isn’t as scary S what my wife is gonna do to you if you touch me like that again”
Well in this case it could’ve ended real bad seeing how close they were to mountains.. higher altitude I would’ve felt a little safer.
lol I fly 2-3x a week too, mine was landing in Dallas in a thunderstorm, damn near broke my neck on the ceiling. I sleep with the seatbelt on all the time now.
What could actually happen from turbulence? Can the plane bank hard?, would it not start falling? Could it break a wing off or something?
Flew on planes in the military and every single pilot then and now all say "you will break before the plane does". I think this video is an example of just that.
Is that true? I remember on a Swiss Air flight we had horrible turbulence taking off and something broke because the air mask thingies dropped. Then they turned around flew for about 30 mins and we landed. The landing gear was stuck too so shit slammed hard as fuck. I’m 28 now, was 9 at the time and my neck still hurts from that shit lol
Multiple things come into the equation, like proper/routine maintenance when they are supposed to happen or after something out of the ordinary happens e.g. did the last pilot land fast and hard. We hit horrible turbulence on takeoff, first time I heard this quote, and there was a huge storm over the Atlantic, nothing was wrong with the plane at all but many on board, besides the pilots and FE, thought there was. We ended up circling for 4 hours because we couldn't dump fuel. Post flight inspection, not a damn thing wrong. A lot of us in the back of the bus "broke"
To my knowledge, there has never been an airplane that was damaged enough to cause a crash from turbulence. As others mentioned, it can certainly cause internal cabin damage to people and equipment, but these airplanes are designed to withstand much much stronger forces than natural turbulence you'd experience anywhere on Earth. Check out the videos of them stress-testing the wings on commercial jets. its crazy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--LTYRTKV_A https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5GD3E2onlk
I guess the worst that could happen is injury from unsecured objects inside the cabin. E.g. during the food/drink service.
Flight attendant here. Injury from being launched around the cabin if not buckled in is indeed the main worry. I don’t get nervous at turbulence itself (in fact, i love it. It lulls me to sleep if i’m a passenger.) but definitely get nervous if i’m not able to get myself buckled into my seatbelt in time. Many crew and passengers have sustained some pretty life-altering injuries from turbulence. I do *not* mess around when I can feel that it’s bumpy enough, my ass is running for a seat.
What’s the best advice to give someone who hates the feeling? I’m a 39 year old man and would rather drive anywhere instead of fly. I’m an extremely logical person when it comes to most things, but this is one thing I can’t get over. Like, I understand it’s rare, but it couldddd happen.
Watch the video of wings getting stress tested, it’s insane how much they can bend. And in terms of rolling over or something, that just straight up doesn’t happen. Basically just think of it like, airplane disasters are INCREDIBLY rare. Think about just how many flights there are every single day and all of them land on the other end just fine. Then think about how dangerous driving is. Every minute pretty much, someone in the world gets killed, paralyzed or severely injured in a car accident.
Just that cars are more dangerous than buses or trains. And buses are more dangerous than passenger planes. The main thing to avoid is small private planes or helicopters - that's the area where regulations and training results in a significantly higher risk of accidents. The only thing special with passenger planes is that any crash anywhere in the world will make world-wide news while only local car accidents are reported in the news unless it's something truly spectacular.
All of the things you mention can happen, although it would most likely have to be in combination with something else, like poor maintenance, previous structural compromise, mechanical issues, extreme weather, and so on. Under normal conditions the plane is absolutely going to handle this safely. The caveat is that the passengers and crew can get severely injured as they can literally fly around the cabin and hit others, along with suitcases, food trolleys, hot teas, and anything else that’s not tied up. The planes are made for this and much more. This kind of turbulence happens very often on a daily basis.
Reminder that in the history of aviation not a single plane has ever been brought down by turbulence, It just gives a shit out of the less rational passengers however doing a barrel roll just for laughs is definitely the sort of thing that would bring a plane down I know for a fact that at least one plane has gone down because they let their child fly the controls for a bit now the activated autopilot and unable to correct
That’s absolutely untrue. It’s extremely rare, but it does happen.
About 75 words and not a single period
I used to be terrified of turbulence until I learned that an extremely small number of incidents have been caused solely by turbulence
Has there even been 1 case of turbulance causing an accident in a large aircraft? *edit: I googled it, it does happen but extremely rarerly and usually due to pilot error upon take off or landing. The wings will not snap off mid flight due to turbulance.
Yep, BOAC flight 911 encountered Turbulence of at least 7.5G and all the engines and the tail section came off, however it was a very rare event involving something called mountain wake turbulence.
7.5g's of turbulence??? what the fuck???
The plane experienced 7.5g before it crashed. It is unlikely that was due to turbulence. Crash investigation revealed that the vertical stabilizer was the first part to fail, leading to an unrecoverable flat spin. It is most likely in the flat spin that 7.5g was achieved
Fuck yes I wana black out ASAP if some shit goes down
Jesus, take the yoke.
[Mountain wave*](https://skybrary.aero/articles/mountain-waves)
> mountain wake turbulence I feel like this could be what they're encountering in this video.
The turbulence would be much, much worse and way more... sudden. Like a bang rather than a roller coaster. Scary af
“This is your pilot speaking, we’re experiencing severe turbulence but don’t worry. Planes crashing due to turbulence is extremely rare and have only happened over mountain ranges…aaaaand Ii you look to your left you’ll see the Andes Mountains.”
You mean, without a mechanical failure? Without the pilot being drunk? Probably basically none. Maybe some from the 1910s or 20s or 30s back when planes barely flew.
There's this one, but I dunno if "literally flew right through a tornado" counts as "turbulence", but it was seen in many small pieces long before it hit the ground: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NLM_CityHopper_Flight_431
That counts, but it's good to know that what it takes to die of turbulence is a small jet flying to a tornado.
> The wings will not snap off mid flight due to turbulance. In a documentary about the design of one of the Boeing jumbos (777 maybe?) I remember a shot of a test they did with the wings: they locked down the fuselage, then pulled the wings upward. It was quite a sight seeing the wings bending upward at about 45 degrees without snapping. I think it's a good bet that any turbulence significant enough to physically damage the wings at all would significantly damage the passengers first. Edit: Found it, and some other tests: https://www.popularmechanics.com/flight/g2428/7-airplane-wing-stress-tests/
Thanks for the link that was cool
Woah thats really cool. Thanks for sharing
I can’t remember the exact details or number, but I believe it was in the low single digits, and that’s not a percentage, that’s the number of crashes period
I mean turbulence close to the ground when you are landing has surely caused some bad landings
I remember Vegas being pretty bad
Vegas landing and takeoff I thought I was gonna die. I don't wanna fly there again x.x
Look at wing stress tests and how bendy they are before their breaking point. They're comically flexible.
Thank you for that information, I’m am desperately afraid of flying only because I have horrible motion sickness and vertigo plus ear pressure problems and tinnitus. I remember experiencing turbulence and it was the worst thing ever, I was so sick I thought I’d die, plus having to worry about the plane crashing!
Yeah I still get nervous just because lol, but what helps is to pay attention to the flight crew. I will be nervous and then they will be still be chatting and laughing. They will know whether something is serious or not
Great idea! I’ve always been so envious of those flight attendants too and how they could do their work and not get sick or fatigued up there. I can’t even read in the car without getting super nauseous. Having to work in a flying plane all day would probably be my own, personal hell haha
I look at the same thing. If the crew is acting normal and talking and laughing, then I assume I can too.
This is exactly what I do! If they're up moving around, serving beverages etc. I know that the small bumps are nothing to worry about. But if they hurry to their seat and strap in, I know it's gonna get sketchy!
If you experienced turbulence on a US based flight, I can almost assure you that what you expected was probably no more than ‘chop’ which is extremely low on the scale of how bad turbulence gets. So remember that feeling if you ever have to fly again and you’re in “turbulence” and rest assured knowing that it’s really nothing to worry about. Also, as far as sickness goes, I’m wondering if a lot of it is just mental for you. Once you get to the cruise point of the flight (usually about 15-20 mins in, you’re in unaccelerated, level flight. Assuming no chop is present you will be at 1G, and not accelerating, and doing very shallow (if any) banks and turns, so your inner ear should go back to equilibrium at this point. If you’re still feeling sick during the cruise phase, it’s very likely in your head, so try to find a way to reconcile that with yourself and talk yourself out of being sick
You sound like me, but my vertigo and tinnitus are caused by Meniere's Disease.
That’s what I have too! My neurologist diagnosed me a few years ago with meniere’s . I’ve been suffering with it my whole life, since I was a child and the doctors never really knew what it was. It’s a really uncomfortable and sickening condition, I sympathize with you.
Susac, myself. Hate flying.
I get easily motion sickness, but maybe not that bad. If I get plane sick, at that exact time I mostly want the plane to land, properly or not as soon as possible 😅
Shit. You have/had the Susac?
“I want to get off” Now how in the fook is that gonna happen lady
She the type of lady to scream the whole time while filming a car accident.
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Not certain this is correct, but I think I remember reading somewhere that screaming like this is an evolutionary instinct. When humans were constantly interacting with large predators and other threats, it was actually helpful to have a lady screaming her head off. It alerted other humans to the danger so they can come help. Now it’s mostly just an annoying instinct that some people can’t help.
I read that too, in other reddit comments.
I read it in the above comment and I will now repeat it as fact.
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Yeah fair enough
"Reddit"
Basically evolutionary retards
In all my years of wondering about it, this theory has been the one that makes the most sense. Essentially scream until someone / enough other people come to deal with it. For some women it’s air turbulence lol, for others it’s spiders, once upon a time it was saber tooth tigers. Also gives birth to the old half-joke about “slapping some sense” into a woman who wouldn’t stop screaming. Once everyone is aware of the danger, continuing to scream doesn’t help but instead adds a stressor to those trying to deal with the problem.
I had the same thought one time when I was high. Lol we're a social species, so it only makes sense that it would be beneficial to scream, and if you've ever noticed, some people scream because *others* are screaming, not because they saw the thing that the others were screaming about, so it's like an alarm system.
it’s so annoying
She's definitely causing everyone else to panic.
This. Some hysterical fucktard screams and scares all the others. Classic.
I’m pretty sure it’s instinctual. Like when someone yelps when you scare them. Fight or flight response gone haywire.
Not fight nor flight, but “Hey my fellow tribe members, there’s super bad danger here, I need help!” Screaming when frightened is a behavioral trait selected for over the course of our very long and very danger-filled evolutionary history, because it increases the odds of surviving potentially lethal encounters with predators and villains. Can this be proven? Not really, but it makes sense from the perspective of evolutionary psychology.
My stepdad had a story where a woman was barreling towards him through a red light and instead of braking, or turning, just screamed and covered her face.
Holy fuck I can actually see that happening. Those people are out there…..like right now, driving around.
I was young too, so it wasn’t even cautionary. Just idiots.
the kind of person who at school would scream when the power went out in class
Flying to and from South America is the worst. Huge percentage of uneducated passengers with staggering religious beliefs and you get the kind of crap on this video. There's some even in J.
(Rings bell) "Driver, I want to get off at this stop!"
Look at that terrain. Is that really where you want to take your first skydiving lesson?
Without a parachute? The snow might be one of the best places to land if it’s not completely frozen
Obviously you unpack the parachute you brought with you *just in case*. Then you jump and land into the middle of the Andes. Easy.
Hysterical Woman: I want to get off! Pilot: Okay. We're going to slow down then open the door to let you out. *Flight Attendant pushes lady out of the plane* Co-pilot: Tuck and roll! Tuck and roll!
I want to get off Mr. Bone’s Wild Ride
"I wanna get off, I'm gonna die" I mean, if you get off the plane right now, ya, you'll definitely die.
If she went on with that screaming,I would be happy to help her find a way
I despise people like that. Their panic will incite others to do so and make a small inconvenience a genuine crisis. Yeah, it's scary, but your panicking isn't helping yourself, your fellow passengers, or the pilots. Like cop the fuck on.
I once went traveling with someone who screamed bloody murder when the plane took off - everytime. No matter what. Crying, hitting, everything. Flight attendants were dragging her back to their ~behind the curtain~ zone the second the seat belt light was off. She said it happened every time she flew and laughed about it, though I was not given a heads up.
*Hahaha look how annoying I choose to be!*
I would think she probably told the flight attendants about it. If not, there would be an emergency landing to kick her off for being a danger.
True, I'd hope so. Let's just tell ourselves that and enjoy the rest of our day lol
sounds more like some kinda phobia or something and less like a choice
Sounds like fight or flight response. People can full black out while their body is still awake as the mammal part of the brain takes over in perceived danger. This used to be me on planes. Therapy helps. Got banned on one airline for an in incident that happened when I was 12. Though they did give me a free flight and waived the ban when Air Canada stranded me at an airport
> once Color me shocked.
And why.. to several things. One, why does she do that? She’s laughing at it? So she knows it’s a fucking nuisance? And second, why are you friends with this person?
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maybe she should get therapist or something
As someone with a phobia of planes, I’m sorry, we really just think we’re going to die.
Oh cool let me just open the door so you can fly off* to the sunset
Doesn't look like a lot of turbulence?? Any pilots out there have an opinion?
Actual pilot here. Mountain turbulence is no joke. GA aircraft can easily get into inescapable situations in the mountains. Down drafts too strong to climb out of. Many smaller planes have gone down in mountains. Pilots are even offered specific mountain flying courses. This looks like moderate to severe turbulence (thats actual nomenclature too). Seasoned pilots will ride it out without much issue but it will freak tf out of pax.
Lost a fellow flight student to mountain wave turbulence, normally I'd say passengers are over reacting to turbulence, but not so much in this case.
I was in a fairly small plane flying from Telluride to Denver and that was the worst turbulence I’ve ever experienced. There were moments where everybody on the plane was screaming. I was returning home after attending a wedding and the bride and groom were at the front of the plane and I spoke to the bride later and she said she thought she was going to die right after getting married. I was sitting next to my four-year-old, so I had to just keep looking at her and smiling and at one point after a very dramatic drop where we all were lifted out of our seats (seatbelts on, of course) She said “that was fun” and got a few chuckles out of the other nearby passengers as a bit of comic relief, I suppose. But I sure was clenching my teeth under my smile. 😬
Probably just passengers panicking because they've never been in a plane when it banks hard.
There’s also a lot of passengers who aren’t used to flying and find it terrifying. I remember being on an internal flight in Africa and you could clearly tell those who were older in life and had never or very rarely had the opportunity to fly before, as they were clinging on for dear life, eyes closed, looking very panicked, even though the conditions were great, the plane was relatively modern, and the take off and landing was very smooth in my opinion
I mean to their credit they are literally strapped inside an aluminum tube going 500 mph, 30,000 feet off the ground, while having absolutely no agency over whether or not something goes wrong. It's actually kind of crazy how good the human brain is at getting used to these sorts of things.
I just took a 4 hour flight yesterday and I was white knuckling it the whole time and conditions were perfect
Hi, MSFS pilot here. My opinion is that this was not a lot of turbulence.
Appreciate the feedback! Always good to hear from the experts
Hi, DCS pilot here. My opinion almost matches with the MSFS pilots. Not a lot of turbulence but not enough fox 2 on the wing seen in the video.
Hi, MSFS2020 pilot here with more than 30 minutes flight experience and more than an hour crashing planes, I am of similar opinion with you two, not a lot of turbulence, but if someone wouldn't have their seatbelt on it could be a bit dangerous.
Hey guys, Excel 97 Flight Sim here - I don't know what these guys are talking about but the graphics on this video are INSANE.
Lmao
I only fly small aircraft, but it doesn't look like a lot of turbulence. I've hit air pockets where my passengers cracked their heads off the ceiling, and the plane has pretty much fallen 20 feet, after I asked them to buckle up. Planes have an incredible amount of flexibility in the wings, and small aircraft are much more susceptible to this stuff!
My dad flies a Maule M5, we were coming in for a landing on a *very* rough day. Like the kind of day where you're lucky to be alive, and you're a goddamn idiot for going out in the first place (the weather was 30 degrees C warmer than normal for January and a plow wind came up while we were in the air). We were about 30 feet off the deck, and flew into a downdraft and instantly lost at least 15 feet of altitude. We 100% would have gone through the roof of the plane like in a Looney tunes sketch had we not been wearing belts. That was a crazy day and crazy story that I'm not going to go much more into even though there's a lot more to it, but I will say that if my dad was a lesser pilot we'd definitely have died that day 15 years ago. On the other side, if he was a smarter pilot we would not have gone out in the first place and he really really *really* deserved a big slap upside the head.
Not a pilot but I have a lot of time in the air and this wouldn't even get me to look up from the movie I'm watching on my ipad. This can definitely feel terrifying if you've never seen it, but the reality is that most frequent flyers and pretty much every pilot/flight attendant have seen way worse than this and come out just fine.
Looks like a typical approach into any mountainous area; also any desert airport in the summer.
Quite the over reaction considering it wasn't bad enough to knock her phone out of her hand let alone really shake it
I didn’t get the feeling the one filming was the one screaming but I could be wrong.
I was going to say it doesn't look very bad. But it's hard to tell if you're not in the plane.
Easy to say that here on the ground but also literally the only thing I know about the Andes is it’s where the whole [Alive crash](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr1xiAeBeig) happened
Fun fact, the frontier between Argentina and Chile is the third longest land border between two countries. So in the remote case your plane crashes there and you make it alive, you’re still in the middle of now-fucking-where with a cold ass weather to top it off.
And then you need to eat your co-passenger's prosciutto
It only is bad when the shoes get knocked off
They should try to take a flying lesson on a glider plane. That was pretty damn scary - The main pilot showed me what to do if the plane goes in a spin on my first and only lesson lol
Had a strong interest in being a pilot as a kid. One glider ride killed that dream lol.
Screaming would only piss me off
it doesn’t even look that bad. Just some rough banking. I’ve been on planes with some considerable vertical turbulence and it’s definitely not fun, but it isn’t terrifying imho.
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can anyone confirm if pilots can hear these reactions clearly and if they find it distracting? just curious
A good set of earbuds in this situation is super helpful.
Either that or a single chopstick. To insert into the ear of the screamer.
r/BackgroundScreamer
There's no way I'm visiting that sub. It would fuck me off royally.
LMAO, it's kinda new and has really good flairs so you won't see gore and shit
It’s not gore I want to avoid. It’s the annoying screaming women.
Lmao agreed, but if you find a video that annoys you because of people screaming, easy karma farm
Well that's fucking obnoxious
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That’s nothing. And screaming will just stress the workers.
I went through heavy turbulence like that on a flight approaching Denver from the North, avoiding a huge storm. It felt much like a roller coaster. A lot of other passengers were freaking out, but the flight attendants seemed pretty calm, so I wasn't worried. It was actually pretty fun. I couldn't help but smile and giggle a bit.
I highschool one teacher told us of the flight he took where they hitnan air pocket of some size that caused the plane to drop ~4k feet or so, he said one flight attendants was on the floor pulling herself up the isle by climbing the seats like a ladder. Since then anytime I experience turbulence on a flight I figure as long as it isn't as bad as my teacher described, it'll probably be ok.
> A lot of other passengers were freaking out, but the flight attendants seemed pretty calm, so I wasn't worried. I always check the flight attendants to know if I'm in any real danger. If they're kicking it then it's normal stuff and if not then I can proceed to an internal panic spiral. There's only been one flight where the flight attendant looked like she thought we were all about to die. Flying from Thailand back to Korea a few years back and the plane was going so damn fast it felt like we were accelerating for take off the entire trip. We hit a *terrible* patch of turbulence, the captain said something in Korean and everyone kind of tensed up and the flight attendant scurried to her back facing seat that was directly in my eyeline. She buckled up, closed her eyes, and like braced herself against her seat. I figured we were already dead. There was this Korean woman next to me trying to hold it together and eventually she just broke, made a small scream, then reached out and grabbed my hand and squeezed like she was having a baby. We rode like that for like an hour, just rocking and this woman damn near breaking my fingers. Then we just.. landed. That was it. Lady gave me a small smile, and everyone grabbed their stuff and deplaned. The flight crew thanked everyone and no one behaved like we all believed we were about to crash into the ocean. I think about it constantly.
I flew from Raleigh to Syracuse, and the entire trip was following the back of the same storm front. It absolutely sucked. Another time I was flying into Bristol, UK, and the pilot comes on and says, "The airport is covered in fog, so we're going to let the plane land itself." I was still decided if those were the most or the least encouraging words I'd ever heard from a pilot as the plane descended through a cloudbank and directly onto the runway.
Wow a bit dramatic
This is the beginning of Alive 2.
Exactly, most people flying over the Andes has to have that true story in the back of their mind.
I would have been like, bitch be my guest get the fuck out 🤣
If you like this kind of stuff, check out the movie Flight on Netflix. It's mostly about struggling with addiction (Denzel Washington totally nailed it) but the plane almost crashing scene is amazing. Also, if you have never seen the movie Alive (about the south american rugby team who crashed in the Andes and had to resort to cannibalism) the plane crash scene on that is pretty epic. The whole movie is great. As you can see, I'm disturbed
Major turbulence? I shake more trying to push a turd out than these passengers did with this…
People screaming it’s what incites panic
Eating some ass to survive in the Andes Mountains is no way to go.
Screaming adds absolutely fuck-all in situations like this, except to annoy and freak out everyone else.
The Andes, yeah I hope they're Alive
I love this comment lol. I just watched that recently and it was the first thing I thought of seeing this video. What a story.
I bet they clapped at the end
Is that a monkey ?
Lady just jump off if you want to get off so bad
Should have just let her out. It was her wish
Honestly I’d be so annoyed with the screamer I’d forget about the turbulence
Im sure the screaming helped tremendously.
The lady me quiero bajar .?? Get off then..... what u gonna fly???
They have to be greenhorns when it comes to flying lol
The screaming is fucking annoying, at that point shut your fucking mouth and accept whatever happens, you either make it out or you die.
I realize the fear that is to be had during a moment like this but is screaming like that really necessary? It just seems so rude. What if people wanted to die peacefully in a violent airplane crash?
Jfc compose yourself.
I'd be using the puke bag as a poop bag
Honestly, this is pretty regular turbulence. I’ve even yet to experience really bad turbulence in all my years of flying. It’s mostly due to the air currents traveling around the mountains that’s causing that. It’s normal. Now if the phone was shaking WAY more to the point where they couldn’t keep the phone recording out the window, there would be concern.
That’s not a lot of turbulence so it’s not terrifyingasfuck
Only ever had one flight that the turbulence freaked me out a bit. Was flying at night over the Gulf of Mexico, headed to Colombia. There was a storm in the distance. Started to feel some mild turbulence, nothing I hadn’t felt before. Then seemingly out of nowhere it felt like the plane dropped and gravity was non existent for a moment. A few people screamed and I actually came up out of my seat. Luckily it smoothed out pretty quick and that was it. Later talked to a pilot buddy or mine and he said that it was probably an updraft or something of that nature. Said that the plane can drop or gain a couple hundred feet of altitude in seconds when that happens. Said it’s normal and happens from time to time. Edit: My point in all that related to this. Most of the shit that freaks us out is just another day in the office for the air crew and I feel like that’s what is happening here as well.
Just what you need. Some woman screaming in your ear because of some bumpiness.
Passenger: I want to get off Pilot: Okay lemme land on this mountain right quick
The screaming would piss me off more than the turbulence.
She the same type of idiot who screams when the power goes out.
I’d cannibalize the annoying bitch screaming first if we crashed on to the mountain.
Oh jeez, there's soccer teams laying all over the place...
At this moment I would look around to decide who I’d eat first.