Decompression Event in an airliner

[Ted Striker]

Love love love the waitress in the sky!

Love that whole album.

[Ted Striker]

When a pilot gets a report of that kind of horrible turbulence ahead, can they not change course (up, down, left or right) to get around it? What causes such huge drops in altitude?

Also, is there less turbulence when flying at night because the earth is cooler?

Yes. Usually changing attitude for clear air turbulence, and changing course for convective turbulence.

Air is a fluid in motion. Like a river, or a narrow strait in the ocean. But it's more 3D, so there is both lateral and vertical flow.

Yes, there's usually less convective, but the jet streams, and weather systems are still there.

[The SnowShow]

Yes. Usually changing attitude for clear air turbulence, and changing course for convective turbulence.

Air is a fluid in motion. Like a river, or a narrow strait in the ocean. But it's more 3D, so there is both lateral and vertical flow.

Yes, there's usually less convective, but the jet streams, and weather systems are still there.

Right, so why did an event like what Undertow experienced happen? Couldn't the pilot, who got the report of severe turbulence coming, change course to avoid the worst of it?

[The AD]

I'm sure a severe turbulence event is scary as hell, but essentially you're safe if you're buckled in. Airframes are designed to withstand forces 50% above the maximum force likely to be experienced during the life of the aircraft. This is called ultimate load.

[summit]

Some turbulence cannot be avoided, or worse is found in an attempt to avoid what was reported.

[Ted Striker]

^^^What both those guys said.

It could be at all altitudes available and/or hundreds of miles wide.

Plus, the phraseology isn't really good when it comes to turbulence reporting. "Light" covers everything from a ripple, to turning the seat belt sign on. "Moderate" covers everything from hold your coffee so it doesn't spill all the way to the flight attendants securing the galleys and strapping in. And "severe" means you might momentarily lose control of the airplane, but it won't break.

So two problems there: "moderate" covers way too much ground, and "severe" is often reported by pilots when it was really only moderate, so there's a crying wolf effect.

Plus it can change fast enough that the guy ahead of you will make a report, but you'll have a smooth ride (or vice versa)

[Gerome]

I'm just posting in this sweet thread that I love flying. Even when I'm crammed into a tiny upright seat for 12 hours in an aluminum tube with 300 other people, awful food, and difficulty with luggage. The longer the better, because it means I'm going somewhere epic. I haven't had a scary experience such as locked brakes on the landing gear or a decompression event, but I've been in some incredibly bumpy flights including a Cessna in thermals over the Nasca Lines in Peru, a glider riding thermals in Santiago, and my wife, the flight attendant/flight instructor teaching me how to stall a cessna on my first flight lesson. She almost let me land the plane on that first instruction. Although I'm glad to say she didn't let me in the end.

[iceman]

^^^ that (and this whole thread) reminds of this

[BmillsSkier]

Well... yeah.

Everything is so great it all sucks.

[warthog]

Sounds like typical flights in Africa. Landing on dirt strips, making sure there are no warthog on the field,

Respect the warthog

[iceman]

If there are warthog on the field you should call in a Warthog.

[MultiVerse]

Enroute A380 wake flips Challenger 604 upside down

A Challenger 604 at FL350 operating from Male-Abu Dhabi passed an A380 opposite direction at FL360, one thousand feet above, about 630nm southeast of Muscat, Oman, over the Arabian Sea.

A short time later (1-2 minutes) the aircraft encountered wake turbulence sending the aircraft into an uncontrolled roll, turning the aircraft around at least 3 times (possibly even 5 times), both engines flamed out, the aircraft lost about 10,000 feet until the crew was able to recover the aircraft, restart the engines and divert to Muscat. The aircraft received damage beyond repair due to the G-forces, and was written off.

http://flightservicebureau.org/enrou...4-upside-down/

[frorider]

^^^^^^
See this is why I stopped flying private jet everywhere like a baller. Now it's bigass commercial jets only.

[wyeaster]

see this is why i hate flying at all

[Gerome]

see this is why i hate flying at all

Seriously, there are about 5,000 planes over the United States, and maybe 14,000 planes flying in the world at any one moment: https://www.flightradar24.com/37.94,-109.21/7
They all seem to go where they need to go quite fine, with the occasional one in a million accident. Then it gets written up in the news and ya'all freak out about it. It's as bad as worrying about shark attacks in the ocean. Get over it. Most people don't even swim in the ocean!

[The SnowShow]

Seriously, there are about 5,000 planes over the United States, and maybe 14,000 planes flying in the world at any one moment: https://www.flightradar24.com/37.94,-109.21/7
They all seem to go where they need to go quite fine, with the occasional one in a million accident. Then it gets written up in the news and ya'all freak out about it. It's as bad as worrying about shark attacks in the ocean. Get over it. Most people don't even swim in the ocean!

That map does help. How many people do you think are flying over the US at one particular time?

[Timberridge]

This doesn't sound like fun...
https://theaviationist.com/2017/03/1...ake-near-oman/

[Ted Striker]

The 380 is an abomination.

[zion zig zag]

The 380 is an abomination.

Buddy of mine is a delta pilot and says the same. Actually I think he prefers Boeing over Airbus in general.

[wyeaster]

Seriously, there are about 5,000 planes over the United States, and maybe 14,000 planes flying in the world at any one moment: https://www.flightradar24.com/37.94,-109.21/7
They all seem to go where they need to go quite fine, with the occasional one in a million accident. Then it gets written up in the news and ya'all freak out about it. It's as bad as worrying about shark attacks in the ocean. Get over it. Most people don't even swim in the ocean!

i didn't say it was rational statistically. it is no doubt rooted in a flight as an 8 year old in a 12 seater in a horrific storm in nebraska.

i'm scared of sharks, too.

[From_the_NEK]

As far as "how many people are in the air, let's just focus on the A380 alone.
208 planes so far delivered to airlines. Lets say 1/2 of those are in the air at any given time (104 planes). 525-853 passenger capacity (lets say there are an average of 675 people per plane).

156x675 = 70,200 people!

My guess is that there are between 700,000 and 1.5 million people in the air at any given time.

[hutash]

The decompression event that you need to worry about is the decompression of the air bag in your car on the drive to the airport. That is were the real shit happens. Flying is the easy part.

[Mazderati]

Seriously, there are about 5,000 planes over the United States, and maybe 14,000 planes flying in the world at any one moment: https://www.flightradar24.com/37.94,-109.21/7
They all seem to go where they need to go quite fine, with the occasional one in a million accident. Then it gets written up in the news and ya'all freak out about it. It's as bad as worrying about shark attacks in the ocean. Get over it. Most people don't even swim in the ocean!

You've done it now.

[Gerome]

You've done it now.

[Ted Striker]

That map does help. How many people do you think are flying over the US at one particular time?

According to the DoT, 719 million domestic, and 208 million international passengers departed/arrived at a US airport in 2016. Setting aside the high/low seasons, that's 2.5 mil per day.