Originally Posted by
U_Rover
...Turned out it was a hydraulic servo valve that actually reversed the rudder! (Can you even imagine driving and you turn the wheel right and the car goes left?)
The crashes were turbulence triggered. The pilots used the rudder to correct, the valve turned fiendish and 150 humans met their maker.
The point is that turbulence didn't actually
cause these crashes -- the real cause was the flaw in the servo valve. The turbulence in itself wasn't really dangerous; it just happened to cause a situation that exposed a flaw in the 737's mechanical systems.
And to the OP: because of the NTSB investigation, that flaw has been fixed in all 737's for a long time now. So rest easy on your flights.