What is turbulence and how dangerous can it be? EasyJet cabin crew injured

This happened only two minutes after take-off of the routine flight, ferrying 181 people from Corfu in Greece, while cruising at 28,000 feet. MailOnline reported that the brutal turbulence hurled the flight attendants against the side of the plane.

The plane was forced to divert from its route on Monday (August 19) and landed in Rome.

“Flight EZY8120 from Corfu to London Gatwick on 19 August experienced turbulence which unfortunately resulted in two cabin crew members being injured,” an easyJet representative said.

“As a result, the captain took the decision to divert to Rome where the crew members were met by medical services.”

The news came amid increasing severe weather events that have impacted travel routes worldwide.

Italy recently suffered a severe storm that led to a superyacht sinking, with six people including crew members such as the British tech tycoon Mike Lynch still missing.

Experts have described turbulence as “common” and said it “rarely” leads to fatalities. However, studies have revealed that severe turbulence has increased by 55 per cent since 1979.

So what exactly is turbulence and how dangerous can it be?

Here’s what you need to know.

Turbulence is the chaotic movement of air which can cause the sudden movement of an aircraft in flight, the Met Office said.

Moderate or severe turbulence can cause the aircraft to change altitude, sometimes very rapidly.

A senior lecturer in aviation operations at Buckinghamshire New University (BNU), Marco Chan, told the PA news agency that turbulence is generally divided into four types.

Turbulence can be caused by “waves” of air, which form upon contact with mountains and hit an aircraft “like ocean waves crashing onto a beach. Jet streams and thunderstorms can also cause it.

Finally, wake turbulence occurs from an aircraft producing lift, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).

In severe cases, objects or people that aren’t secured with a seat belt can be thrown into the air due to changing altitude, leading to injuries.

Aviation consultant John Strickland told PA that “turbulence happens” but with millions of flights operated each year, incidents are “limited” and “fatalities are rare”.

Mr Chan also said turbulence is “common” but made clear it should be taken seriously.

“Turbulence is, of course, dangerous and that is why we have so many lines of defence to try to avoid them when we can,” he said. “If we cannot, we react to it.”

But he added that airlines have implemented “quite rigorous training” with cabin crews and are “very good at managing” turbulence.

“That is why it is quite rare for this to be on the news, quite rare for fatalities, injuries,” he said.

Two British Airways cabin crew suffered broken legs when a flight from Singapore to Heathrow was affected by severe turbulence over the Bay of Bengal on June 28, 2023.

According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), an independent US government investigative agency, there were 163 “serious turbulence injuries” on US-based airlines between 2009 and 2022 — an average of around 12 per year.

Mr Chan said that turbulence can cause “structural damage” to a plane in extreme scenarios because of “how strong” the winds can be.

While experts admit extreme turbulence is rare, a growing number of recent incidents may leave passengers wondering if this is becoming more common.

According to FlightRadar24, there has been an increase in clear air turbulence in recent decades which has been linked to climate change.

According to the BBC, climate change increases the temperature difference between warm and cold air masses, forming the jet stream that flights rely on. It causes added instabilities in the jet stream, leading to more turbulence.

Mr Chan, a former first officer with Hong Kong Airlines and Cathay Dragon, said pilots receive “weather charts” before flights and use them to predict possible areas of turbulence.

Other flights will also report areas of severe turbulence to avoid.

He said pilots try to avoid turbulence by flying higher or lower, with autopilot technology working to keep the plane at the same altitude “with minor adjustments”.

The seatbelt sign on an aircraft will usually be switched on early into a patch of turbulence. If it continues, cabin crew patrol the aisles to ensure passengers fasten their seatbelts before they strap themselves in.

“It is always invisible to the pilot or even to weather radar systems — it doesn’t pick up the turbulence on any of our screens or displays — so we just have to base that on our own experience,” Mr Chan told PA.

“And, of course, if we see a thunderstorm in front of us, or we are in clouds, we know there’s going to be turbulence associated, so we try to avoid them.

“We don’t know we’re encountering turbulence until we encounter them basically.”