Passengers wounded on bumpy flight: How dangerous is turbulence?

No one suffered life-threatening injuries, but the incident is a reminder that travelers should heed those fasten seatbelt signs.

Seven people aboard an Allegiant Airlines flight landed in the hospital after the plane encountered severe turbulence on flight from the Dominican Republic to Pittsburg, Pa.

The turbulence was rattling enough that some passengers were thrown from their seats, and a flight attendant hit her head. The plane was diverted to Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport. None of the injuries were life-threatening, according to the Broward County sheriff's office in Florida. The flight attendant was the most seriously hurt.

While turbulence can be a scary part of plane travel, it is a normal and routine occurrence, caused by conditions in the atmosphere like atmospheric pressure or jet streams. Flying over mountain ranges can also produce rough weather. Because turbulence can sometimes be difficult for pilots to predict, they use turbulence reports from other pilots who have flown on the same or similar path.

Even though turbulence is normal, it can still be dangerous, which is why the Federal Aviation Administration requires passengers to wear their seatbelts as the airplane leaves the gate, after take-off, during landing and taxi, and whenever the seatbelt sign is illumined. Most injuries that do happen during turbulent flights happen to people who are not buckled in, which is why two-thirds of people injured annually on planes are flight attendants.

But nervous travelers can rest assured that even the most severe turbulence won't cause an airplane to fall from the sky, aviation experts say.

"Even in extremely rough air, the wing is not going to break off and the plane is not going to flip upside-down," pilot Patrick Smith told Gizmodo in 2014. Planes are designed to take a beating, and even in the roughest weather the plane won't move more than 40 feet in any direction.

For the smoothest flight experience, Mr. Smith recommends sitting closest to the middle of the plane, near its center of gravity. The seats that tend to pick up the most turbulence are farther to the back of the plane.

Material from The Associated Press was used in this report.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Passengers wounded on bumpy flight: How dangerous is turbulence?
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/2016/0506/Passengers-wounded-on-bumpy-flight-How-dangerous-is-turbulence
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe