Captain Halliday
Established Member
- Joined
- Jun 1, 2014
- Posts
- 4,341
Had an interesting experience with turbulence on a MEL-BNE flight this evening. No doubt others have too, so here’s a thread in which you can add you turbulence tales.
Tonight’s flight was on a 738. We were descending through about FL220 and approaching Gold Coast. The cabin crew were preparing the cabin for landing but the seatbelt sign was still off and the FO was giving arrival details on the PA.
The turbulence started very suddenly and began with what felt like the aircraft dropping. From row 26 it was easy to see the non-seatbelt wearers. Three pax almost hit their heads on the overhead bins.
At first it was just that large bump with the falling feeing. The FO carried on with his announcement. But a few seconds later we entered cloud and the reel fun started. Lots of bumps and swaying of the aircraft. Certainly the worst I’ve experienced. Some of the few remaining service items and a couple of phones hit the floor.
It was sufficiently bad that the FO stopped mid-sentence. The seatbelt sign came on followed by the “all passengers and crew be seated with seatbelts fastened immediately.”
I was told once the addition of “immediately” is a cue word for the crew. And they certainly responded.
The two forward crew appeared to make it to their seats, one at the rear did also, but only after being jolted into several pax seated in aisle seats.
However, the crew member who was about row 15 dropped her box of rubbish on the floor as she needed both hands to stabilise herself. She made an attempt to reach the back of the cabin, but simply couldn’t compete with the movement of the aircraft and with no spare seats she sat in the aisle at about row 22 holding firmly onto two armrests.
I won’t attempt to guess the duration of the turbulence but it was long enough for me to check FR24, windy.com and the BOM radar.
When it passed the FA headed to rear and sat down.
The seatbelt sign was turned off briefly after that, but none of the four crew left their seats and nor did the pax.
I wasn’t especially bothered by it, though it certainly was not comfortable. But there were lots of pax gripping their armrests and/or loved ones.
Tonight’s flight was on a 738. We were descending through about FL220 and approaching Gold Coast. The cabin crew were preparing the cabin for landing but the seatbelt sign was still off and the FO was giving arrival details on the PA.
The turbulence started very suddenly and began with what felt like the aircraft dropping. From row 26 it was easy to see the non-seatbelt wearers. Three pax almost hit their heads on the overhead bins.
At first it was just that large bump with the falling feeing. The FO carried on with his announcement. But a few seconds later we entered cloud and the reel fun started. Lots of bumps and swaying of the aircraft. Certainly the worst I’ve experienced. Some of the few remaining service items and a couple of phones hit the floor.
It was sufficiently bad that the FO stopped mid-sentence. The seatbelt sign came on followed by the “all passengers and crew be seated with seatbelts fastened immediately.”
I was told once the addition of “immediately” is a cue word for the crew. And they certainly responded.
The two forward crew appeared to make it to their seats, one at the rear did also, but only after being jolted into several pax seated in aisle seats.
However, the crew member who was about row 15 dropped her box of rubbish on the floor as she needed both hands to stabilise herself. She made an attempt to reach the back of the cabin, but simply couldn’t compete with the movement of the aircraft and with no spare seats she sat in the aisle at about row 22 holding firmly onto two armrests.
I won’t attempt to guess the duration of the turbulence but it was long enough for me to check FR24, windy.com and the BOM radar.
When it passed the FA headed to rear and sat down.
The seatbelt sign was turned off briefly after that, but none of the four crew left their seats and nor did the pax.
I wasn’t especially bothered by it, though it certainly was not comfortable. But there were lots of pax gripping their armrests and/or loved ones.
