Air travellers in for bumpier rides due to climate change

HONG KONG: As the Boeing 747 plummeted for what seemed about 300-plus metres, Fung Wing-ho seized the armrests as the shock lifted him out of his seat. Only a few rapid heartbeats later, a second, more violent jolt hit the plane and Fung saw two fellow passengers sail aloft, crashing into the ceiling of the fuselage. Passengers shrieked. In the galley, a flight attendant thrown to the floor howled in pain.

On June 4, Flight KL887 from Amsterdam, operated by Royal Dutch KLM, had made smooth progress. Then, 30 minutes before it was scheduled to land at Hong Kong International Airport, it hit what aviation experts suspect to be clearair turbulence.

The captain was announcing their imminent arrival when a sharp jolt cut him off mid-sentence.

It was a sunny Sunday morning, and no one registered the turbulence in their path, not the pilots or the air traffic controllers in Hong Kong because clear-air turbulence cannot be detected by radar.

It’s invisible, yet every year it is one of the leading causes of injuries to airline passengers and crew, hitting planes like a slapping hand.

Fung’s seat belt was unfastened and it was sheer luck that he was spared the sudden falls that befell some of his fellow passengers.

Clear-air turbulence, the invisible troublemaker as meteorologists call it, happens when two jet streams collide, with one moving faster than the other, in a cloudless sky.

Experts predict that the phenomenon could show up with greater frequency as a result of climate change, caused by a rise in emissions of greenhouse gases.

That means air passengers and crews are in for bumpier rides that pose a greater risk of injury. — China Daily/Asia News Network