Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence.

[markis10]

Aircraft passengers are being reminded to fasten their seatbelts at all times while seated after a Virgin Boeing 737 encountered wake turbulence.
The incident occurred on 13 September 2012 when the aircraft, carrying 132 passengers, was en route from Bali to Brisbane. While in cruise, the 737’s crew spotted an aircraft above, approaching from the opposite direction. The aircraft passed about 0.9 Nautical Miles to the left and 1,400 ft above.
About one minute later, the 737 experienced cobblestone-like turbulence. It then rolled slightly to the right and then suddenly to the left to an angle of about 40°. The crew managed to arrest the roll and straighten the aircraft. The incident occurred as a result of wake turbulence from an Airbus A380 aircraft.


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[Fruitcake]

Re: Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence

40° bank? Wow, that would be quite the exciting ride. Now I have to go and search jb747's thread to see if anyone has asked about maximum bank angles in regular operations...

 

[lovestotravel]

Re: Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence

I'd say it was lucky that this didn't end up far worse than just turbulence

 

[Aussie_flyer]

Re: Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence

40° bank? Wow, that would be quite the exciting ride. Now I have to go and search jb747's thread to see if anyone has asked about maximum bank angles in regular operations...

I believe up to around 30 degrees would be fairly routine. but a sudden an unxpected 40 degree bank would be quite a shock for everyone on board.

 

[casanovawa]

Re: Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence

So they can toss smaller planes around in the air and knock them 90 degrees around on the taxi ways...

Best to give them a wide berth by the sounds of it...

Bit of food and beverage could likely have been thrown around the cabin in that situation...

 

[serfty]

Re: Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence

Encountered similar from a 747 while flying DFW to SEA some years ago - we were in the front row of an American 738, pre dinner drinks were being served.

It manifested out of the blue with a shaking and a rattling and a swaying - I had to grab my drink lest it escape. That continued for several seconds then stopped.

The captain came on the PA immediately and with a commanding voice stated: "All passengers and crew, be seated and put on seat belts immediately".

About 5 seconds later the shaking, rattling and swaying hit from the other direction, again lasting several seconds.

Then all went 'quiet' for a time before noise from the passerngers began to rise.

A short time later the Captain came on the PA again to avised about "Wake Turbulence" followed be a dissertation about a recent reduction in minimum vertical separation standards and the problems it is causing.

SWMBO who is a nervous flyer has still not got over it ... only mentioning it again this morning.

 

[Warks]

Re: Allways buckle up - those A380s can cause a stir when it comes to wake turbulence

I remember seeing a small plane go by when flying over the English Channel years ago and thinking "how close was that?" but having come from Australia (this was the late 80s) I'd never seen another plane from a plane at that time. Now of course you often see them when coming in to land or taking off, just ahead or behind but any I've seen in mid flight have been a long way away. Except one. I was flying DRW-BNE a couple of years ago about 90 minutes out when I saw a 737 or bigger plane shoot past below to port seemingly not that far away but probably a lot further than I thought. I did think with thousands of miles of empty skies over the desert why do they have to fly so close? Then I thought that they probably had different altitude corridors for north-south vs east-west. Still I would have said it was as close as a NM if not closer.