I love flying. Give me a takeoff snack, a long-haul cabin, and a nice sunset in the clouds, and I’m happy. But there’s one part of flying that never quite becomes charming, and that's the turbulence.
You’re strapped in, the cabin goes tense, and the woman next to you starts praying. Severe turbulence can put even the most seasoned of fliers on edge, and in the worst cases, can even cause injuries or death.
And I hate to break it to you but the age of supercharged turbulence could be upon us thanks to none other than climate change.
In this post:
Keep Your Seatbelt On At All Times:
Just last month, a United Airlines flight en route from Missouri to Texas experienced severe turbulence that injured five passengers and crew members. The plane diverted and made an emergency landing in Waco, Texas. Emergency services were on standby upon arrival, and injured individuals were taken to a local hospital.
A United flight bound for Washington, D.C., was diverted to Lagos, Nigeria, after experiencing violent turbulence over the Atlantic. Six passengers were reported injured, and some required hospitalization.
These weren’t routine chops. The turbulence hit hard enough to cause injuries mid-cabin, even with seat belt reminders.
In December, we saw a string of seven serious aviation incidents around the world in one week. One in the UAE claimed the lives of both pilots. Another, in Germany, hospitalized a passenger. Both times, the culprit was unpredictable turbulence.
This isn’t just bad weather. It's a pattern. A pattern that the public has reacted to very negatively.
Rocky Skies Are Getting Rockier:
Turbulence happens when air moves unpredictably — picture invisible waves crashing into the aircraft. Pilots usually dodge the worst of it thanks to radar, weather forecasts, and flight planning.
But there’s one kind of turbulence that doesn’t play by the rules:
Clear-Air Turbulence (CAT).
Triggered by wind shear at the boundary of two air masses travelling at very different speeds (such as a jet stream and the surrounding air), clear-air turbulence is usually sudden and severe. It can’t be detected by radar and isn’t visible to pilots, which means flight crews can be caught off guard, with no time to switch on the fasten seat belt signs.
For pilots, it’s the same as hitting an invisible pothole, and for passengers, it’s usually the moment your drink lurches and falls into your lap.
Blame It on the Climate
We know climate change is melting ice caps and turning forests into firewood, but now it’s messing with the sky too.
Researchers from the University of Reading found that wind shear in the jet stream has increased by 15% since 1979. As a result, severe clear-air turbulence has jumped 55% on some of the world’s busiest routes. By 2050, pilots could encounter double or triple the severe turbulence we see today.
If you're flying between continents, especially on transatlantic routes, your smooth ride could soon feel more like a mechanical bull session.
Ask the passengers of a Singapore Airlines flight that dropped 177 feet in under a single second. More than 100 needed medical care, including broken bones and concussions. Worst of all, there was no warning when their aircraft hit a rogue air pocket.
What Does This Mean For You?
Now, I don’t want you to panic: aircraft are built for this. The flexing wings, the creaking fuselage, the occasional stomach-drop? That’s the plane doing what it’s designed to do. It’s not falling apart, it's absorbing the hit.
The real concern is us.
Flight attendants suffer about 80% of all turbulence-related injuries. Most are standing, often juggling 300-pound carts, when the cabin lurches.
Unbuckled passengers are next. If you’re not strapped in, you are the projectile.
Lap infants, perhaps the most vulnerable, are still permitted to fly without their own seatbelts—a policy flight crews have criticized for years.
As Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, put it bluntly: “A child can become a projectile.” She's not wrong.
What we all need to do is adjust our habits and start taking air safety protocols a lot more seriously. This means:
Keeping your seatbelt fastened. Always. Even when the light’s off.
Not treating the cabin like a lounge. If you need to go somewhere, no one’s stopping you, but maybe skip the barefoot Bloody Mary stroll during cruise.
Think twice before unbuckling for that overhead bin mid-flight.
Final Approach: What It Means for the Future of Flying
This isn’t a doom-and-gloom story. It’s a recalibration. Planes are safe. Pilots are some of the best-trained professionals on the planet. And technology is only getting better. But the skies? They’re changing. This is obviously part of a significantly larger global issue, climate change, and flying does contribute to it (which we have a separate article on).
My recommendation now is, next time the captain tells you to buckle up, take it seriously. And maybe leave the hot coffee in the cup holder until descending into calmer air.
