I recently survived a 14-hour plane ride from Wisconsin to Hawaii with my 2-year-old. In previous blogs I’ve mentioned that we make the trip to and from Hawaii on a regular basis so my daughter has learned to handle the long flight better than most adults. Even so, there’s only so much reading, coloring, drawing, playing puzzles, and stinging beads a toddler can take before wanting to get up and dash down the plane’s aisles. So I let her. I’ve tried to tame her running into power walking so as not to disturb the other passengers, but there are times she will let go of my hand and she’s off to the races.
Midway through our most recent flight (somewhere over the Pacific Ocean) we were completing our run/walk/run/run/walk ritual when suddenly our plane jerked like a frightened horse, jolted my daughter, and caused to her to slam into an armrest. Ouch! Her wails were quickly drowned out by our pilot announcing that he was turning on the seatbelt sign because we would “soon be encountering turbulence.” Encountering? I think “encountered” would have been a more accurate word choice.
I studied meteorology in college so I had prior knowledge about wind sheer, weather disturbances and other factors which contribute to a bumpy flight, but in most cases (I thought) commercial pilots have the equipment to detect turbulence and can warn passengers before they smash into armrests. (I later found out that I was only half correct in making that assumption.) As it turns out scientists are currently working on a turbulence detection system that could help pilots avoid impending weather disturbances and turbulence all together.
According to National Geographic News, NASA is working on a system, which will help “prevent injuries and save airlines millions of dollars.” The space agency is fine tuning new technology to help pilots steer clear of bumpy air. The first system is an enhancement of current airborne radar called E-Turb that gives a clearer view of potential sources of turbulence. The technology was tested for 18 months on a commercial aircraft, and NASA is working on those results now. The second system “generates instant reports when an aircraft encounters turbulence, enabling ground crews to better diagnose any maintenance issues, and eventually rebroadcasts the report to all aircraft flying nearby.”
When the two systems work in unison, the new technology could give pilots several minutes of warning before flying into severe weather. NASA engineers say that’s enough time to get everybody seated and carts stowed if the plane encounters bad weather in the meal phase of the flight (and prevent arm injuries like the one my daughter suffered).
But, she’s not alone. According to the Federal Aviation Administration, an average of 58 people are injured in turbulence-related incidents each year in the United States, and 98% of those people do not have their seat belt fastened at the time—guilty as charged.
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