Comments

1. Let’s get more details. Were the fasten seatbelt signs on? Were the injured passengers sitting in their seats and not wearing seatbelts? Were some possibly in the toilet or waiting to use the toilet? Or perhaps stretching their legs? How were they injured? If passengers were injured what about flight attendants? Were they working? Were they injured? Details are important. It’s tiresome to always read admonishments about wearing seat belts when facts are unknown.

2. As a former Navy pilot my opinion (based on over a decade of flight time) is to ALWAYS wear your bloody seat belt. If you HAVE to take it off (potty break / head call), OK. But be aware that you’re in an ocean of air that can (and does) change shape causing in-flight turbulence. MOST crew injuries are due to unexpected turbulence – and there are a LOT of them.

   So sit down and . . . BUCKLE UP !!!

3. Global warming and climate change are expected to make clear air turbulence all the worse and more recurring problem a few decades from now than it already is.

   Buckle up and stay buckled up longer for the rougher rides ahead and for the rides already nowadays.

4. One passenger said that the seatbelt sign came on and only shortly thereafter the airplane dropped suddenly. The airplane was fairly close to it’s destination so probably some were up going to the bathroom or making final preparations for landing such as stowing luggage overhead and they did not have time to be seated and belted. The descriptions of people flying up in such situations are wrong. Momentum means that the unbelted person stays relatively the same while the rapidly descending airplane comes down and hits them.

5. This is an important reason to not allow dogs . You never know .

6. “climate change” has nothing to do with it .

7. It is always interesting to see people and organizations bring out their axes to grind when there is a dead body or a tragedy. Some British news organizations brought out climate change for the turbulence. One brought out all problems with Boeing aircraft over the last few years. It is like having a fatal car crash and people immediately blaming drinking or drugs or culture or immigrants or some such nonsense.

8. I can see a roiling unpredictable atmosphere due to a warming climate.

9. CAT (Clear Air Turbulence) has always been the unseen danger. The Jet Streams are not a “global warming” phenomena, they always have been, and still are for millenia, part of our planets atmosphere. Any warnings for turbulence are usually given by other aircraft on a similar route.
   As a Pax, on long hauls I only ever remove my seat belt/ leave my seat for a quick stretch or a quick bathroom visit. Hopefully at the same time!!!
   On short hauls, I try to stay seated and belted throughout the trip.
   And I have experienced severe turbulence many times both as Pax and PIC.

10. @GUWonder
    It’s been 30 years of your brainwashing scam, you’d think by now you’d have solid proof of all these terrible cause and effects of manmade CO2 induced climate change, and not still relying on coulds, mights, and expected to’s. Up until now actually every prediction has been proven to be false. But that doesn’t matter to you true believers. Because science, right?

11. Please don’t feed the climate change trolls or worse, those that really believe in it…

12. For a premium, environmentally-friendly, and earth-forward flight, please choose Delta.

13. It’s always so interesting to see the right-wing opposition to scientific findings and the faith-based opposition to scientific findings by the “usual suspects” Digest the following while the ice caps and glaciers are melting and retreating:

    ********

    Experts say global warming may increase instances of clear air turbulence by upto
    200% by 2050.

    ……..

    Paul D Williams, a professor of
    Atmospheric Science at the University of Reading, UK says research has shown that severe clear-air turbulence, which is strong enough to catapult unbuckled passengers and crew around the aircraft, could become twice or even three times
    as common on some flight routes later this century.
    Paul shares, “We’ve recently extended our analysis globally and that includes Indian airspace.

    …..

    We found that there will be significant increases in clear air turbulence over
    India within the next few decades. The projected increases are strongest in the northern half of India and are especially strong in the pre-monsoon season, in other words from March to May, when we
    estimate that there will be 100-200% more clear air turbulence by the period 2050-2080.”
    Hazardous clear air turbulence
    Paul explains that clear air turbulence is particularly hazardous to aircraft because it is invisible to both radar and satellites and also because it cannot be seen by pilots from the cockpit either”.

    ********

    From the Times of India today.

14. Clear Air Turbulence is a longstanding excuse for incidents such as this. Had a taste of this sort of thing over the Andes one night on an AA A300. We hit an updraft at cruise (it had been smooth until then), when the updraft ended, the angle of attack was high and we started shuddering (buffeting) and dropped. However, the flight crew was awake and quickly took evasive action. Within a minute of two, everything was calm aside from the pax. The captain came on and blamed it on CAT – however, I was looking out the window when I felt the first updraft and we were in clouds. So that was just as much BS as blaming it on climate change (LOL, btw). It was more likely mountain wave effects that radar didn’t pick up on that precipitated my event. Perhaps this was similar?

15. @Alert +1

    Climate change has nothing to do with allowing dogs.

16. This is why you should always have your seat belt attached unless going to the rest room

17. Señor Leff’s favorite flight attendant union babe Sara Nelson seens to indicate that she ”feels” like there has been an increase in inflight turbulence since Hurricane Katrina on her routes:

    https://edition.cnn.com/travel/air-turbulence-climate-getting-worse/index.html

18. One of the videos shows a cart flying and luggage falling from the bins. If someone gets a hardcase trolley on his head and breaks his neck, seat belt wont be much help.

19. If luggage from the overhead bin was falling out during in-air turbulence, then those bins are a problem from either an equipment or policy design perspective or a basic safety perspective of crew and passengers verifying bins are securely closed.

    When I am seated in an aisle seat I am always wary of the bins not being secured properly or or some clumsy, careless or unlucky passenger causing an item to fall out of the bins and land on a seated passenger. Despite my best efforts and alertness about what is going on with the bins near me, I have had a couple of bags fall down and land on my shoulders when passengers are not careful enough with putting in or taking things out of the bins.

20. @Mantis: If you are looking for evidence of global warming, look no further than insurance rates in Florida.

21. @Christopher Raehl I live in FL. Your example is no proof claiming insurance rates in FL. The state had hurricanes over the past 100 yrs. The insured property values are far higher today, then they were even 25-30 yrs ago. Much higher increases in the values than most areas of the US. Combine that with some laws that may make things worse and fraud. Its also how much risk a company wants to take on. Inusrance companies hate paying out.

22. Home owners and a bunch of ideologues wanting to continue to live in denial about the impact of global warming/climate change on flying and anything else is unsurprising. But if they live in Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and New York. the insurance companies will make you pay for it anyway by hiking up the premiums or forcing you to de facto self-insure and eat the costs of storm-related damages (unless and until Uncle Sam’s taxpayers come to the rescue).

23. Singapore Airlines tagline: ‘A Great Way to Fly… Until the seatbelt sign turns on!’