Four people were eventually hospitalized Wednesday after violent winds rocked their flight to Florida from North Carolina. This is the most recent in a increase in catastrophic flights unprecedented storm damage.
Both passengers and crew suffered fractures and other injuries during a particularly bumpy ride from North Carolina’s Asheville Regional Airport to St. Petersburg-Clearwater of Florida. In the final 20 minutes of the flight, the plane dropped about 8,000 feet, causing people to jump out of their seats and bang their heads against the ceiling. Medical staff transferred two flight attendants and two passengers to the hospital as soon as the plane landed. New York Times report. Six more passengers of the 179 people on board were checked by first responders but did not require hospitalization.
Elizabeth Spriggs, a passenger sitting close to the back with her son, said the shaking happened near the last leg of the flight, as the crew was conducting final checks. The first shock caused a passing flight attendant to fall to the ground. Then came the second, a plunge that knocked the laptop off the ground and “launched” the fallen flight attendant into the air, she said.
Mrs Spriggs, 57, said: “It’s like watching ‘The Matrix’. “We watched her go up in the air and probably hover for a second.”
If it sounds like stories about the chaos of knocking people out on a planes is becoming more common, it’s not your imagination. The Federal Aviation Administration reported that 17 people were seriously injured due to turbulence last year — highest year ever recorded. In December, flight to Hawaii ends with 20 people needing hospitalisation treatment after hitting a patch of rough sky. In March, a bumpy ride from Austin to Frankfurt, Germany in March of this year resulted in seven people being hospitalized.
A study from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom shows a spike in chaos over the past four decades. Since 1979, total annual severity The chaos travelers experience in the North Atlantic has skyrocketed by a staggering 55 percent. Another study found that perturbations could triple by 2050 due to a rapidly warming world. This increase particularly affects an invisible type of turbulence known as fresh air turbulence. Normally, pilots could broadcast during extreme winds to warn other flights, but this type of turbulence is much more difficult to predict. Warmer air and increased carbon dioxide are disrupting the Jet Stream and causing more drastic changes in both longitudinal and transverse wind curves.
While the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the incident, there is not much work to be done to combat this invisible threat right now. The FAA recommends that you stay in your seat and fasten your seat belt, especially when the lights are on, but that’s not very comfortable for flights experiencing sudden and unexpected high winds.
Of course, turbulence isn’t the only headache that airline passengers face; the lack of everyone from Aviation mechanics and manufacturers ARRIVE crew ARRIVE air traffic controller is leading to flight delays and record cancellations. Usually airlines blame bad weather for these cancellations, but not always. However, as the weather on Earth becomes more extreme, we can expect more delayed or dangerous flights in the future.
