Anyone experience severe turbulence?
 

On a recent flight cross country, I experience the woste and scarriest turbulence of my life. I thought we were dead. The pilot comes on the PA and says to expect it to get really bad. Flight crew puts everything away and straps themselves into their seats. We were at 41,000' and entered a thunderstorm. Aircraft was completely engulfed in clouds. You could not see the wing past the engine. And at 41,000' that is strange. We had violent updrafts and then would drop like a rock. Also sudden wing rocking. I kept thinking of the Air France plane that disinigrated after flying into a thunderstorm last year.

Is turbulence like this anything to really worry about? Can the plane become physically damaged by getting slammed around? It's just so scary I though I'd never get on a plane again.

next time, wear diapers. or, stay home, get a really good couch, and a 55"tv.

no, such turbulence has never happened before, and will only happen again when you are in the air.

the biggest problem is for all people not to be firmly attached to the plane. put on your seatbelt, and pull it tight. the af affair was a real fluke every one of those has been well covered by the press. they happen about once every 5 or 10 years.

I remember reading somewhere or seeing on a TV show that a 747 can withstand turbulance pressure that would kill a human being without so much as a scratch, so I think you are OK. The wings actually can flex quite a bit.

I don't like turbulance either, though. My worst, if I recall, was flying into Dallas in a thunderstorm.

I was once on a flight from STT to SJU in a prop plane with hallucious turbulence from rain, plus my little sister had pneumonia.

And I've flown the same route since.

I was on a QF flight in 2003 (SYD/HLZ) and the crew had refused to get back in the plane for the turn around flight (3 hours flight time). We were informed while taxiing that the seatbelt sign will remain on for the complete flight and there would not be any service at all and the FA's would remain seated for the entire flight as well. It was the worst turbulence I have ever encountered.

I had it one rather bad on JFK-GVA.
Really mininal service (food was flying around, so it didn't really made sense anyway), they tried to fly over it, failed, beside, failed, under it, failed.

At the end of the day, I drank a glass more wine, and got some sleep :)

Turbulences seem dangerous but it's very rare that a plane goes down because of them (unless it's landing/starting). Most of the time, you rather have people who get killed/hurt because they are not wearing the belt.
To give you an idea what an airplane can sustain, I recall (It was an Asian carrier, not sure it was Korean...) that once in an MD11, once from the FC activated the thrust reversers in flight, you can imagine what kind of constraints that puts on the airframe. There were fatalities, but not because the plane went down...

On an overnight flight from SFO-SYD last year. Cabin was dark, nearly everyone was asleep - myself included. So far the flight had been very smooth. Out of no where all I remember is feeling my body being nearly weightless for just a second and people screaming. I have no doubt that the seatbelt kept me in my seat.
The pilot came on and re-iterated the reasoning to always where your seatbelt when in your seat. To the best of my knowledge, there were no injuries. I didn't get back to sleep for a couple hours after that event.

You got plenty of turbulence between SYY and EDI on a Saab 340 – so much so that service was suspended and the FA would strap herself in. One evening it was particularly bad and we got caught by a gust just as we were landing. The left wing almost touched tarmac. The pax seemed unconcerned, but on pulling in to the gate, the captain came on to apologize for the landing and assured us we had been in no danger. The tremor in his voice suggested the opposite.

Not really. I have a friend who flew for Cathay. The pilots really liked getting assigned to the freighter runs because it meant they didn't have to fly around turbulence like they did if they had a plane full of passengers - They could just fly right through it and carry on. The main risk of damage is from things like hail, and there isn't any hail at those altitudes.

Here's a video of a US Air Force "hurricane hunter" aircraft flying right into a hurricane:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxYfl-inCw8

The aircraft doesn't fall apart...

On a "heavy" WN Flight last year, we encountered very severe turbulence on approach into JAN. I mean bad...probably the worst I've ever encountered on any flight. Women pax were screaming and the people sitting next to me had a death grip thing going on with the arm rests. I kind of chuckled, and just relaxed back into the seat and rode it out.

@ the OP-the chances of Boeing metal breaking apart under severe turbulence is VERY slim to none. You'll get numb the "bumps" eventually after you've experienced them so many times. :D

When it does hit and it is more badderer than I like, I remind myself when I watched a making of the 777 show - from what I remember there are 2 things that stick in my mind: they put "things" (I hope that is not too technical for y'all !) on the wings and when flying over the Alps or somewhere like that they flick a switch to give the wings an epileptic fit and it did not shake to pieces; the second thing I remember is them strapping down the 777 fuselage and attaching cables to the wings and basically cranking the wings upwards until they destructed - and it was a considerable way they went and I think I remember them saying it was the equivalent of something that has never been recorded in the air. So, that is dragged out of my memory banks when things get bad. And alcohol.

It's very rare for turbulence itself to bring down a plane. The biggest hazard is being injured while rattling around inside the cabin, hence the instruction to always wear your seatbelt while seated.

It's not clear what happened in the Air France 447 case. One theory is that the airspeed measuring equipment failed, causing them to fly too slowly and stall the aircraft. In the dark, clouds, and turbulence, they weren't able to recover. However, it's just a theory -- there isn't enough data to confirm it without the black boxes. There's supposed to be a new search for them this spring.

Thrust reverser deployment in flight is generally unrecoverable, and very, very rare
 

Technically thrust reversers on transport category aircraft will not deploy without an actual landing, that is weight on the extended landing gear. There have been a tiny number of incidents where that happened, notably a 1991 crash of a Lauda Air Boeing 767 with a loss of all on board, which resulted in disabling all 767 thrust reversers while that was fixed. The DC8 once could have thrust reversers deployed in flight and some B737-200 models were modified to permit it. Despite those it is a certification requirement for all aircraft equipped with thrust reversers that they cannot be deployed in flight. No MD11 ever had such an incident on record. Some turboprops can have their propellers reversed in flight (the ATR 42-72 being notable) but most of thsoe not incorporate the "squat" switch also that precludes reverse deployment without weight on the landing gear. There is colorful history on this subject, mostly involving incorrect rigging and inadequate preflight inspections. That said, don't worry about it, it is almost 100% certain that such a thing will never happen to you.

As for turbulence, turbulence can and has caused inflight breakups. No commercial use aircraft can withstand unlimited weather. There is a speed, called "turbulent air penetration speed" that is the maximum speed permitted in turbulent air. That speed is the one below which the aircraft will 'stall' before structural damage can happen. Without discussing load limits and 'stall' definitions, this means that a well maintained and piloted aircraft can endure some very frightening weather. I've been in such weather as both a pilot and as a passenger. The passenger side is probably less of a strain... anyway accidents in turbulence are indeed very, very rare.

There are quite a few FTers who are type rated on jet aircraft, including me, so if you want more pilot perspective on any of this kind of thing just ask, and they'll emerge to venture informed opinions, and will correct me quickly if I hjave made any errors in my comments.

My bad, it was the wing slats that got deployed. I wanted to be too fast :(

Either way, the airplane lost 5000ft after that. It was China eastern.

Sorry !

badderer? sure you haven't had some of that aforementioned alcohol already? :D