Is turbulence dangerous?
“Most turbulence is annoying and may be sickening, but it’s rarely dangerous,” she says. Modern airplanes are made to withstand a tremendous amount of turbulence; injuries occur when passengers don’t wear their seat belts or when flight attendants are working in the cabin. Clear air turbulence is the hardest to predict. Unstable weather, rising heat or even passing through another airplane’s wake also contributes to sudden plane movement. 3. Why are nautical miles used in aviation rather than statute miles? Statute miles date back to the Roman Empire; 1,000 (left-right) paces by a Roman soldier equal one statute mile. But around the globe, pilots use nautical charts — similar to those originally designed for ships — based on longitude and latitude. The world is divided into 360 degrees, with 60 minutes to each degree. Each minute equals a nautical mile. 4. Do airlines use navigators today? No. Navigators, who sat in the cockpit and calculated an aircraft’s position and routing, were fo
