Turbulence is a common part of flying, but severe turbulence that causes injuries, or death, is very rare.
"An aircraft that's flying along smoothly will start to move upwards and downwards quite radically because the wind is moving up and down." It's not known at this stage what type of turbulence caused the disruption on the Singapore Airlines flight. Tracking service FlightRadar24 told Reuters there were storms — some severe — in the area at the time.As the world continues to burn fossil fuels, global temperatures are rising, and turbulence is just another natural phenomenon that's affected by that warming.
"The nature of the jet streams are slightly different in the northern and southern hemisphere because the location of the land masses," Professor Lane said. The researchers discovered the biggest increases in clear air turbulence over the United States and the North Atlantic, also some of the world's busiest flight paths.