Type of Turbulence
01-14-2025 | 01:33 AM
#1
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Type of Turbulence
Hi everyone,
My first time on here and I知 not sure if this is the correct forum so please redirect me if needed.
I had a flight from Singapore to Brisbane (SQ235) departing around 9pm on Saturday 11 January local time. For around 6 hours of the flight there was bad turbulence and as an anxious flyer I知 keen to understand what severity this turbulence was if possible to backdate. My husband who is a calm flyer was also uncomfortable and anxious at times, and many people were motion sick - at one point around 5-6 hours in the cabin crew were instructed to cease service and sit down. I致e previously dealt with moderate turbulence whilst flying through storms before but that was infrequent and short - this was probably the most consistently uncomfortable experience where I questioned the safety of the aircraft. Thank you all.
My first time on here and I知 not sure if this is the correct forum so please redirect me if needed.
I had a flight from Singapore to Brisbane (SQ235) departing around 9pm on Saturday 11 January local time. For around 6 hours of the flight there was bad turbulence and as an anxious flyer I知 keen to understand what severity this turbulence was if possible to backdate. My husband who is a calm flyer was also uncomfortable and anxious at times, and many people were motion sick - at one point around 5-6 hours in the cabin crew were instructed to cease service and sit down. I致e previously dealt with moderate turbulence whilst flying through storms before but that was infrequent and short - this was probably the most consistently uncomfortable experience where I questioned the safety of the aircraft. Thank you all.
01-14-2025 | 06:47 AM
#2
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From: Engines Turn or People Swim
First off the airplane itself was safe. Modern airliners are designed to be EXTREMELY robust and can handle almost any turbulence. Even if bins pop open or plastic trim pieces fall off the cabin wall, the structure and important systems are just fine.
Most turbulence is predictable and we make efforts to avoid or minimize, mainly for pax comfort. Sometimes it's not practical to go around it (fuel), or it's just too widespread to avoid. Then you have to ride it out.
There's a type of turbulence called Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) which is harder to predict and can be severe enough to cause injuries to pax and crew who are not seated and buckled up. When you read about injuries on long-haul over-water flights, that's usually the cause. Like they say, keep your seatbelt on if you don't need to be up and about.
The turbulence at the core of a very large thunderstorm could damage an airliner (light aircraft are sometimes destroyed when foolish enough to fly into that). But that's easy to avoid for us, onboard radar and ATC radar has no trouble at all detecting thunderstorms, and we just don't fly into them.
I don't recall any airliner crashes due to turbulence in recent history, you'd probably have to go back 60-70 years to find one, in the days when radar technology wasn't very good.
Most turbulence is predictable and we make efforts to avoid or minimize, mainly for pax comfort. Sometimes it's not practical to go around it (fuel), or it's just too widespread to avoid. Then you have to ride it out.
There's a type of turbulence called Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) which is harder to predict and can be severe enough to cause injuries to pax and crew who are not seated and buckled up. When you read about injuries on long-haul over-water flights, that's usually the cause. Like they say, keep your seatbelt on if you don't need to be up and about.
The turbulence at the core of a very large thunderstorm could damage an airliner (light aircraft are sometimes destroyed when foolish enough to fly into that). But that's easy to avoid for us, onboard radar and ATC radar has no trouble at all detecting thunderstorms, and we just don't fly into them.
I don't recall any airliner crashes due to turbulence in recent history, you'd probably have to go back 60-70 years to find one, in the days when radar technology wasn't very good.
01-14-2025 | 07:04 AM
#3
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Joined: Sep 2014
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Hi everyone,
My first time on here and I知 not sure if this is the correct forum so please redirect me if needed.
I had a flight from Singapore to Brisbane (SQ235) departing around 9pm on Saturday 11 January local time. For around 6 hours of the flight there was bad turbulence and as an anxious flyer I知 keen to understand what severity this turbulence was if possible to backdate. My husband who is a calm flyer was also uncomfortable and anxious at times, and many people were motion sick - at one point around 5-6 hours in the cabin crew were instructed to cease service and sit down. I致e previously dealt with moderate turbulence whilst flying through storms before but that was infrequent and short - this was probably the most consistently uncomfortable experience where I questioned the safety of the aircraft. Thank you all.
My first time on here and I知 not sure if this is the correct forum so please redirect me if needed.
I had a flight from Singapore to Brisbane (SQ235) departing around 9pm on Saturday 11 January local time. For around 6 hours of the flight there was bad turbulence and as an anxious flyer I知 keen to understand what severity this turbulence was if possible to backdate. My husband who is a calm flyer was also uncomfortable and anxious at times, and many people were motion sick - at one point around 5-6 hours in the cabin crew were instructed to cease service and sit down. I致e previously dealt with moderate turbulence whilst flying through storms before but that was infrequent and short - this was probably the most consistently uncomfortable experience where I questioned the safety of the aircraft. Thank you all.
CAT: Clear Air Turbulence, associated with the jet stream and/or wind shear (large differences in wind speed and/or direction over a short distance).
Convective: Associated with thunderstorms as warm air rises, causing vertical shear.
Mechanical: Mountain ranges disrupting wind flow at high altitudes or even buildings and/or trees disrupting wind flow at low altitudes.
Wake: When closely following another aircraft or crossing their path, this is the disrupted air displaced by the aircraft exactly like a boat in the water.
Note: Flying from Singapore to Brisbane you're flying right through the "Intertropical Convergence Zone", during the middle of Australia's summer. Things tend to get very bumpy in that area sometimes. It's just the nature of the beast down there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intert...nvergence_Zone
Most likely you experienced a combination of CAT and Convective turbulence. A Two For One deal.
01-22-2025 | 04:58 AM
#4
Disinterested Third Party
Joined: Jun 2012
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By definition, when food service and walking are difficult, turbulence is moderate. When food service and walking are impossible, turbulence is severe.
The degree of turbulence is subjective, however; what is moderate to one person maybe light to another, severe to another, and cabin service ordered stopped and flight attendants seated isn't necessarily a function of severity, but prudence, on the part of the crew. It's possible that reports or forecasts of turbulence were significant enough that while walking and service might have been possible, the captain decided to seat the flight attendants out of caution.
Without having been there, of course, it is impossible to say what the origional poster experienced.
The definition of moderate states that occupants feel definite strains against seat belts or shoulder straps, and unsecure objects are dislodged. In the case of severe turbulence, by definition, occupants are forced violently against seatbelts or shoulder straps, and unsecured objects are tossed about. That may help determine what was going on in the cabin, and the actual level of turbulence.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publ...tml#Tt93b6ROBE
The degree of turbulence is subjective, however; what is moderate to one person maybe light to another, severe to another, and cabin service ordered stopped and flight attendants seated isn't necessarily a function of severity, but prudence, on the part of the crew. It's possible that reports or forecasts of turbulence were significant enough that while walking and service might have been possible, the captain decided to seat the flight attendants out of caution.
Without having been there, of course, it is impossible to say what the origional poster experienced.
The definition of moderate states that occupants feel definite strains against seat belts or shoulder straps, and unsecure objects are dislodged. In the case of severe turbulence, by definition, occupants are forced violently against seatbelts or shoulder straps, and unsecured objects are tossed about. That may help determine what was going on in the cabin, and the actual level of turbulence.
https://www.faa.gov/air_traffic/publ...tml#Tt93b6ROBE
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