Bumpier flights might be due to climate change: Study

A new study out of the UK says turbulence has increased 55% since 1979
Researchers say climate change is responsible for the bumpier flights
One pilot says if you're wearing a seatbelt, it can get violent at times

Updated: Jul 19, 2023 / 04:24 PM CDT

(NewsNation) — Have your flights felt especially bumpy lately? Climate change may be the culprit.

New research suggests climate change is responsible for the reported rise in clear-air turbulence, which is invisible and dangerous for aircrafts.

Clear-air turbulence comes from unstable pockets of air that give pilots little to no warning and could injure anyone not wearing a seatbelt.

At a typical point on one of the world’s busiest flight routes, the total annual duration of severe turbulence increased by 55% from 1979 to 2020, research by the University of Reading in the UK found.

Moderate turbulence increased by 37% over the same time and light turbulence increased by 17%.

Videos of intense turbulence knocking over food trays, bags and even injuring passengers and flight attendants are popping up all over social media.

These increases in turbulence are consistent with the effects of climate change with warmer air from CO2 emissions strengthening clear-air turbulence, particularly in the North Atlantic, the team behind the study says.

The good news is, if you wear your seatbelt, you are unlikely to be injured by turbulence.

One pilot who has been flying for more than three decades told NewsNation he is definitely seeing more turbulence lately, and sometimes it can be violent.

“If you haven’t hit severe turbulence, and hopefully you haven’t, I have, it’s not intentional. That aircraft, if you’re not strapped in, you’re just a loose piece of meat slapping around in a tin can. And it’s violent, and it can throw you negative G’s. It’s like a carnival ride, but you’re not strapped in. You don’t want to be in that situation,” Captain Dennis Tajer, spokesperson for the Allied Pilots Association said.

To work around some of these changes in the sky, pilots on American Airlines are using an app to crowdsource data from other pilots in the air, Tajer told NewsNation. A motion-activated app shows pilots real-time information about the flying conditions of the planes just around them.

Tajer says this technology will help avoid those moments of surprise turbulence.