Flight attendants are trained to deal with emergencies and are primarily charged with keeping passengers safe, including during turbulence. This is a normal part of flying, and when we fly so much, we are well accustomed to dealing with it and have procedures in place to keep everyone as safe as possible. Although turbulence causes anxiety among many flyers, it is not dangerous if you are strapped in securely.
Passengers should always follow the seat belt sign and the crew’s instructions. As an extra safety precaution, passengers should keep their seatbelts fastened at all times whilst seated. This prevents anyone from being injured during sudden severe turbulence. According to the BBC, there are over 5,000 incidents a year over a total of 35 million flights globally.
What Is Turbulence?
Turbulence is an irregular motion of air resulting from obstructions to the airflow or vertical currents. There are three primary causes of turbulence. Convective turbulence is vertical currents of air, caused by rising warm air and sinking cool air, often near thunderstorms. This is common over land on sunny afternoons and is often bumpy during the climb and descent. Mechanical turbulence is where there are obstructions to the airflow by mountains, buildings or terrain and is common at airports and strongest at low altitude on windy days.
Clear Air Turbulence (CAT) occurs in clear skies near jet streams due to rapid changes in wind speed and direction. This can occur at high altitude with no visible cloud. It is hard to detect and comes out of nowhere. Wake turbulence (also considered mechanical turbulence) is caused by wing-tip vortices from other aircraft. It can happen to smaller aircraft behind a large, heavy aircraft, although this is managed by air traffic control spacing rules implemented on take-off and landing. Furthermore, a mountain wave is wind over mountains that oscillate and can cause smooth updrafts followed by severe downdrafts.
These can be further classified by intensity into light, moderate, severe and extreme categories, which depend on the effect of turbulence on the aircraft. Turbulence can affect an aircraft of any size, but it differs in intensity and the weight of the aircraft; the larger the aircraft, the less likely it is to occur. Turbulence is not something that is visible and can happen at any time. Anything unsecured (including passengers and crew) may move suddenly and cause injury.
The Pilots View
Aircraft are designed to withstand turbulence and pilots fly through it regularly, so it is nothing for passengers to be concerned about. They will also be aware of the weather beforehand and if any turbulence is to be expected. The flight crew take cues from weather charts, radar returns and reports from other aircraft. Airline operations departments will keep the flight crew updated on conditions and help them navigate around areas of turbulence.
When turbulence occurs, the flight crew slow the aircraft to a designated turbulence penetration speed, which ensures high-speed buffet protection and prevents damage to the airframe, according to askthepilot.com. They can request a higher or lower altitude or a revised routing. Other pilots in the area will also warn each other of any turbulent conditions. If approved by air traffic control, the flight can proceed and change altitude in search of smoother conditions, in the interest of comfort, not safety.
Some aircraft have an autopilot with a special mode to deal with turbulence, but it does not correct it, but desensitizes the system. The flight crew can also avoid some turbulence just by looking out of the window and avoiding cumulus clouds that occur with thunderstorms. Most turbulence is moderate and severe turbulence is occasional. Any aircraft that experiences severe or extreme turbulence will be checked on the ground post-flight by maintenance staff.
Turbulence 101: What Pilots Wish Passengers Knew
This article serves as reassurance that turbulence rarely poses a danger to passengers and requires little effort from pilots to navigate.
Facts And Figures
Each year, around the world, about 100 people are injured during turbulence, half of them are usually flight attendants. This is because they are performing their duties in the cabin and making sure that everything is secure. Flight attendants do sometimes get injured by turbulence and need medical attention. Injuries to the head, neck, shoulder and ankle are the most common. More aircraft are flying, so more turbulence is encountered and reported. Skies are bumpier and are a byproduct of climate change. Global warming destabilizes weather patterns and intensifies storms.
Around two billion passengers fly every year and with data from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), we can see that between 2009 and 2023 in the US alone, there were 206 serious injuries and one fatality caused by turbulence. Of these, 40 were passengers and 166 were crew members. Over fifteen years, it is not as many as one might expect. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), of the severe injuries caused to passengers flying throughout 2023, almost 40% were caused by turbulence.
Southwest Airlines decided this year to end cabin service at 18,000 feet instead of 10,000 feet. This ensures that passengers and crew are seated with seatbelts on, ready for landing. By doing this, they cut turbulence-related injuries by 20%. Korean Air stopped its service of noodles in economy, due to passengers risking getting burned. They reported that turbulence incidents had doubled since 2019. Airbus reported that between 2014 and 2018, there were 240 cases of severe turbulence. Of these, injuries were reported to passengers and crew: 30% were on long-haul flights and 12% on short-haul flights.
Procedures In Place
Preparing for turbulence starts in the crew briefing prior to flight. This is where the flight attendants and flight crew discuss the flight and safety and service are discussed. The flight crew will inform the flight attendants about the flight and communicate the weather en-route and if turbulence is expected. If there is turbulence anticipated during the flight, the flight crew will advise the flight attendants to secure the galleys and cabin. The senior crew member will make an announcement to the passengers. The flight attendants check that all passengers are seated with seatbelts on and all loose items are secured. This ‘cabin secure’ check is reported back to the flight crew.
If the turbulence is unexpected, the flight crew will switch on the seatbelt sign immediately it’s detected and make an announcement to passengers and crew to be seated. If this is during cabin service, the flight attendants will immediately return to the galley and start securing any items, whilst others start securing the cabin as quickly and efficiently as possible. They will then pass the ‘cabin secure’ and take their seats. From there, they must wait until the flight crew calls them and say it’s safe to move in the cabin.
If the turbulence was severe, the flight attendants would check the passengers for injuries, perform first aid and report back to the flight crew, the conditions in the cabin, which may include injuries and damage. If severe turbulence is predicted, the flight attendants will secure the galley in advance, removing bottles and hot liquids. They will lock the lavatories, perform the ‘cabin secure’ and take their seats. If the turbulence is unexpected and extreme, flight attendants may not be able to get to their jumpseat, so it is permissible to take the nearest empty seat and strap in.
Frontier Airlines Flight 1369: A Cabin Crew Perspective
Flight attendants are more at risk of injury than most.
Examples Of Severe Turbulence
Turbli reports on the most recent accidents related to turbulence that caused four or more injuries. 
The Truth About Turbulence
Turbulence is common and pilots and flight attendants deal with it a lot and there is no threat to the aircraft. Although turbulence is the number one cause of anxiety in passengers, it is not dangerous or anything to worry about. It sometimes seems that there are more incidents of turbulence, but more aircraft are flying than ever before and incidents are more likely to be recorded and shared on social media.
The media always fuels the fire when it comes to turbulence, with descriptions of ‘the pilots wrestled with the controls’ and ‘the airplane plummeted’ or ‘dived downwards’ when there is nothing further from the truth. There is no wrestling with the controls and the aircraft may have only dropped a few feet. Of course, everyone seems to video the impending doomed flight, and it looks dramatic on social media, but it is very rare to have severe turbulence.
At the end of the day, passengers should take responsibility for their own safety and keep strapped in whilst seated. This would prevent injury in case of unexpected severe turbulence. The smoothest place to sit on an aircraft is over the wing as this is the center of gravity. The worst place to sit is at the rear, close to the tail. Turbulence feels worse than it actually is, but should never be perceived as dangerous. It might be unpleasant for a short time, but the aircraft will not be in danger as passengers often think.