Has turbulence ever been the cause of a plane crash?
Yes. The USAF thinks it lost two KC-135s to severe turbulence and there have been other in-flight breakups. Wake turbulance put a Royal Aircraft Establishment Hawk on it’s roof at RAE Bedford in 1982. The pilot ejected from the back seat and bounced along the gras until he hit the perimeter fence, he survived though when I met him in 1983 he was walking with sticks. The photographer in the front seat stayed with the aircraft and was uninjured. Possibly the China Airlines 747 in the link below. There was a BOAC 707 too, can’t find a link right now. Rivet Amber, an RC-135, was lost due to damage caused by turbulence (second link) One of the US “Broken Arrow” incidents was an in-flight breakup of a B52 at around 30,000 feet due to severe turbulence (third link) So it isn’t common, but it does happen.
yes i believe many have been involved and have had a few hairy ones myself but i always think the most vulnerable time is when the plane is off the ground with the wings fully laden with fuel and a sudden turbulence of a certain kind they are not all similar hits the plane its always a wonder to me how the wings don’t rip off and go straight up as you can actually see them wavering up and down with two heavy engines on each wing, when you pass through i never fail to think the guys who produce and service these planes do a magnificent job
The FAA reported that among non-fatal accidents, in-flight turbulence is the leading cause of injuries to airline passengers and flight attendants. Each year, about 58 air passengers in the United States are injured by turbulence while not wearing their seat belts. On December 5, 1996, 16 people suffered injuries, including a 7-month-old baby, when an American Airlines jetliner ran into clear air turbulence over Colorado. From 1981 to November 1996, there were 252 reports of turbulence affecting major air carriers. Two passengers died, 63 suffered serious injuries and 863 received minor injuries. Both fatalities involved passengers who were not wearing their seat belts. Two third of turbulence-related accidents occurs at or above 30,000 feet. Generally, flying through turbulence of the milder nature, if prolonged, can be fairly uncomfortable to the passengers. If such turbulence were detectable by the weather radar or from weather forecast, pilots would avoid them by deviating off trac
Associated Press An American flag, put up by New York City firefighters, flies over firefighters working Wednesday to recover evidence and human remains from the crash of American Airlines Flight 587 in the Rockaway Beach section of Queens, New York. Investigators raised the possibility Wednesday that turbulence caused by a jumbo jet contributed to the crash of American Flight 587, saying the two planes took off less than the standard two minutes apart. [Click to enlarge] NEW YORK – Investigators raised the possibility Wednesday that turbulence caused by a jumbo jet contributed to the crash of American Flight 587, saying the two planes took off less than the standard two minutes apart. “We do not know whether this contributed in any way to the actual accident, but we are looking at this very closely,” said Marion Blakey, chairwoman of the National Transportation Safety Board. “Wake turbulence” has been blamed for deadly airline crashes in the past. Investigators want to know whether it
