Posted on 02/17/2014 8:29:59 PM PST by NYer
Wikipedia/skinnylawyer
This plane is similar to the aircraft that hit a pocket of violent turbulence enroute from Denver, Colo. to Billings, Mont. on February 17, 2013.
A United Airlines flight on its way to Billings, MO encountered severe turbulence on its descent, injuring three crew members and several passengers. The Boeing 737 carrying 114 passengers departed from Denver at 11:57 a.m. on Monday and landed at 1:23 p.m.
Several people were rushed to area hospitals.
At least one person remains in critical condition while 5 have been treated and released.
"At the time of the incident, skies over the Intermountain West were partly cloudy but winds were howling over southern Montana and northern Wyoming," said weather.com meteorologist Alan Raymond. "The plane likely encountered what's known as "clear air turbulence" which is hard to pick up on the aircraft's on-board radar."
(MORE: Pilots Who Landed at Wrong Airport Confused by Lights)
The Weather Channel spoke with one passenger who had a terrifying experience onboard. Ejay Oldbull was seated in the back of the plane but had a front row seat to the incident. Oldbull, a frequent flier, said he hadn't ever felt turbulence like this before.
"At first the turbulence was like a jarring up and down, but when we started going left to right that's when I knew something was wrong," he said.
Oldbull says the pitching and yawing of the plane caused the oxygen masks to drop, and sent the unbuckled passenger beside him to the floor to the ceiling. "She just started going up and down when we dropped."
Also caught in the fray, a flight attendant that Oldbull says he could hear "flying around in the back of the cabin."
(MORE: Plane Gets Stuck in the Snow in Kansas City)
As the plane leveled out, Oldbull said people were visibly shaken. He heard one man ask, "Where's my my baby?" Luckily, the baby was safe in his mother's arms.
Oldbull and other passengers, one of whom was a nurse, attended to injured passengers and flight attendants through the remainder of the flight.
Injures from clear air turbulence aren't all that common, but it's a reminder to stay buckled up for the duration of your flight.
So close yet so far! Moose-Chelle is only a few hundred miles away. But, unfortunately, it ain’t horseshoes or hand grenades, and ‘close’ does not count.
Global warming.
I like this
Splish Splash I was taking a bath
We'll never make it. We're doomed.
Ho Lee Fuk.
Not that same pilot again?!
about seat belts....the other thing I do is I never use the airplane br...I'm always buckled up....of course I watch what I drink so I don't have to go to the br....
from Hudson & Landry's Ajax Airlines
Rock and roll can be an understatement. Red-eye LA to NY via Chicago and we went from cruising altitude of about 38K to 19K in what I seem to recall a VERY short amount of time. It was white knuckle all the way down. Flight attendant with the cart was holding on but he was against the ceiling. Overhead compartments flew open and contents “shifted” all over the cabin.
Minor injuries throughout and we were asked to stay in our seats when we landed so medical personnel could board the plane. I recall the pilot coming on the PA right after we leveled out saying he’d never experienced turbulence that bad before (no,I’m not kidding) and he said it was rolling-wave turbulence.
Shook me to my core. I now have to fly medicated (Lorazepam). I double the dose, strap myself in and boom-boom out go the lights. I don’t wanna know nothing about the flight.
Hard to find a good photo, but sailplane pilots know them well.
Much more violent than they look, like a (slow) horizontal tornado:
I completely disagree.
Back in the 60’s I was on a flight from Indianapolis to Chicago which hit one of those Clear Air Turbulences (CATs) and dropped according to the pilot 2,000 ft.
I was literally up in the air reaching down trying to grab my seat and pull myself back in. Being young and in the Army I didn’t see the need to buckle up before that flight.
On another trip over 20 years ago on a trip from Chicago to Lincoln NB we were violently bounced up and down and shaken from side to side for the first hour and then they finally rolled the plane out to the runway.
They wouldn’t even let us up from our seats to exit the plane before takeoff the wind was so bad. We just had to sit and wait.
Been on a few horror flights over the years myself.
Worst one, (and the closest to death, I believe) was on a 19 passenger aircraft that got caught in unforecast, closing-up thunderstorms between the US and the Bahamas. What should have been a 45 minute flight turned in to a 105 minute nightmare, as the crew tried desperately to find a hole in the storms.
I just belted up and hunkered down in the front row, watching the bulkhead flex, glad that I couldn’t see where the screams behind me were coming from.
Luckily, the flight crew were two grey-haired, near retirement experts, and even they were covered in sweat when we landed.
Been in a couple hit by lightening, and four declared emergencies, over the years.
(Let’s just not talk about the Air Force flying)
The only difference is that I was six years old, on my first airplane flight. My family did not travel much so it never came up until I was an adult.
I was terrified of flying...TERRIFIED...even when it was required of me for work, and I had no idea "why." I had apparently "blocked" that entire experience. I drove nearly everywhere when it was possible.
Finally, after being "forced" to fly to Boston, I had a terrible return flight (storms all the way in the Early Spring). After I got off of that flight, I "remembered" the one when I was six years old.
I promptly called my Mother and asked her if my suddenly recalled memory was accurate. She said..."well yes, I thought you KNEW that was why you were afraid to fly!"
I think as an adult it is a terrible experience, but you can at least understand what happened. To my six year old self, I was SO excited...was sitting by the window, had visited the cabin and gotten my little red plastic "wings," and was just having lunch when all hell broke loose. Apparently, I had zero way to process that in my little brain.
!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.