Unprecedented In-Flight Turbulence: Airlines Must Prioritize Passenger Safety

The problem of severe in-flight turbulence has recently been brought to the forefront due to several incidents involving airline passengers requiring medical attention. In recent months, Singapore Airlines Ltd., Qatar Airways, and Air Europa have all experienced sudden drops in altitude, resulting in passengers needing hospital treatment. One such incident occurred on Singapore Air Flight SQ321 which encountered severe turbulence upon entering Thai airspace and resulted in an emergency landing in Bangkok during its journey from London to Singapore.

Turbulence is becoming more prevalent with reports of severe air turbulence causing death and serious injury. Recently, forty passengers were injured when an Air Europa flight traveling from Madrid to Montevideo in Uruguay encountered severe turbulence. According to the turbli database, the most turbulent flights connect Santiago in Chile to Santa Cruz in Bolivia while flights departing from Tokyo are the roughest long-haul services according to the website’s analysis of 150,000 routes using data from UK and US government meteorological agencies.

Strong turbulence occurs when air streams of different speeds converge often at the boundaries of jet streams over mountains and in certain cloud storms. The Santiago-Santa Cruz route experiences turbulence due to winds from the Pacific Ocean to the Atlantic Ocean flowing almost perpendicular to the Andes while turbulence is also common near the equator. As a result, it is important for airlines to take steps towards ensuring passenger safety during these events.