Originally Posted by
commaspace
Turbulence is such a an innocent term. They need to use a different term because from the pictures, this plane hit a motherlode.
That sudden drop and head smashing against ceiling/ luggage bin enough to dent means the people who suffered impact could have pretty severe head trauma. Hope there's no more fatality or long-term injury.
Which is why, in aviation terms, turbulence is categorized in several ways. There are basically four categories, and two variants, used generally throughout the world, which are explained here:
https://www.boldmethod.com/blog/list...o-report-them/
This was likely a case of extreme turbulence...
Originally Posted by
The Ginge
There is no need to worry about the plane, they are designed to take more than was encountered by the SQ flight.
...which is why this statement is potentially false. I expect the aircraft will be grounded for at least a few days for an initial inspection, and then, even if allowed to fly to a SQ facility, it will likely need extensive inspections and possible work.
Originally Posted by
Thai-Kiwi
Really, avoiding reported tubulence this can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
Other than using the weather radar to identify and try and avoid large thnderstorms, Pilots can (and do) report in bad weather/turbulence via Pilot Reports (
PIREP), but it remains a ‘big sky’ and conditions reported by one aircraft may not be encountered by another. Thoughts are with all pax and crew affected by this rare event.
PIREP's (Pilot Report's) are less effective these days due to more direct routings. While aircraft used to fly on designated "highways" in the sky, the advent of Area Navigation and GPS has allowed more and more aircraft to fly much more direct routes. The downside to these direct routes is fewer aircraft transiting the same airspace on a regular basis to provide feedback and PIREPs. Trans-Oceanic routes are still more structured overall, but within sight of land or overland, this is a growing problem. With regard to avoiding thunderstorms, while radar is valuable, the old Mk I eyeball can be even moreso. Radars are very subject to GIGO (garbage in garbage out), so an error in the tilt of the radar can cause the sweep to miss the intended target area completely, and reading radar returns is a black art still, with attenuation and radar shadows all varying between settings and equipment.
As you say, this is a (thankfully) very rare event, and we hope those affected are doing well.