In the last week, there have been 3 consecutive severe turbulences around the world. This frequency and severity of turbulence brought to mind the questions “why has turbulence increased?” and “what are the most turbulent routes in the world?”. While the USA was the most turbulent route, experts also explained the reason for the increase in cases.
A passenger died of a suspected heart attack and hundreds of people were injured after a Singapore Airlines plane encountered what was described as sudden and extreme turbulence while flying over Myanmar. Five days after the Singapore flight, a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin entered turbulence while traveling over Turkey and 12 people on board were injured during the turbulence. So, what is turbulence? What are the most turbulent routes in the world?
What is turbulence? Where does it happen?
Turbulence is the sudden and uncontrolled jolts caused by irregularities in the air currents that an airplane encounters while in motion. This causes sudden lateral and vertical movements of the aircraft and can cause discomfort or danger during flight. Turbulence, which occurs when warm air currents caused by the heating of the earth’s surface rise and meet cold air, is generally seen at the edges of jet streams, over mountains and in some cloud storms.
Turbulence occurs more frequently in different parts of the world and under certain conditions. Turbulence is especially common over high mountains such as the Andes, Alps and Himalayas.
Air currents passing over mountains cause mountain wave turbulence. Air currents over the ocean and warm air currents in equatorial regions can cause turbulence. The Bay of Bengal is particularly prone to turbulence during the monsoon season.
Fast air currents at high altitudes, i.e. jet streams, can cause turbulence. Flights over the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans in particular can be subject to this type of turbulence. Experts say that high humidity and temperatures exacerbate turbulence, and that flying from London to New York in the summer can be more bumpy than flying the same route in December. They also say that while radar technology has improved, it is still impossible to predict exactly when and where turbulence will occur.
Turbulence routes
According to the 2023 report of Turbli, a website that compiles data on “frequent” turbulence in air transportation, the intensity of the “vortex dissipation rate” (edr), was the 1905-kilometer route from Santiago to Santa Cruz, with an average of 17,568 edr. Although the distance between Almaty in Kazakhstan and Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan is 210 kilometers, this route was the second most turbulent route with an average of 17,457 edr.
The third most turbulence-prone route, which prevents many people from traveling by air, was the 661-kilometer flight route between Lancou and Chengdu in China, with an average of 16,750 edr.
The list was followed by the 517-kilometer flight route between Tokoname and Sendai in Japan with an average of 16,579 edr.
On the other hand, the 214-kilometer flight route between Milan, Italy and Geneva, Switzerland was the fifth most turbulent route with an average of 16,398 edr.
The list was followed by the routes between Lancou and Shenyang in China, Osaka and Sendai in Japan, Shenyang and Chengdu in China, and the flight route between Shenyang and Chongqing in China.
Last on the list was the 203-kilometer route between Milan, Italy and Zurich, Switzerland, with an average fare of 16 thousand 16 edr.
Is there a connection between the Qatar and Singapore airlines incidents?
Milton Speer, a meteorologist and researcher at the University of Technology Sydney, says that if two airplanes are in the same area when they encounter turbulence, they could be affected by the same meteorology. But according to Dr. Guido Carim Jr., head of Griffith Aviation at Griffith University, there appear to be no obvious atmospheric or meteorological phenomena linking the two turbulence examples of the week. Carim interviewed pilots who have flown in both regions in recent days and was told that the pilots “did not see anything out of the ordinary”.
Experts explained: Why has it increased?
It was announced that severe turbulence events increased by 55 percent between 1979 and 2020. According to experts, this is due to global climate change. It has been frequently stated by experts that climate change will cause extreme weather events every year. It was stated that disasters such as floods, hail, fires and landslides would occur with extreme weather events at unprecedented magnitudes compared to the past.
