Seven injured on Qantas after turbulence

[Krzysztof M]

Originally Posted by Philip Argy

You can't stay buckled in a seat for 8 hours!

Haha but you can for 6! Once on a flight across the Pacific we had mod turbulence with seatbelt sign on and flight attendants grounded for almost 6 hours straight. Mind you, at night on a United it was a looong 6 hrs.

By the way, at one point we hit severe turbulence and did drop a lot too (as explained by the captain later) but everybody was buckled up so no dramas except for general panic attacks. As much as I knew it's no big deal, it does feel scary, even for someone who spends on the 747s more time than on a bicycle..

[Rhys Xanthis]

Originally Posted by Krzysztof M

As much as I knew it's no big deal, it does feel scary, even for someone who spends on the 747s more time than on a bicycle..

That feeling you get in your stomach when a plane sinks a little gets me every single time.

Infact the only time it didn't get me was when I went to Karratha in an E190 in a pretty dam steep climb!

[Michael Mak]

The final report was released by ATSB today:
http://www.atsb.gov.au/media/1571470/ao2009029.pdf

Extract from the report:

The cloud associated with the convective activity consisted of ice crystals; a form of water that has minimal detectability by aircraft weather radar. Consequently, the convective activity itself was not detectable by QPI’s radar. As the event occurred at night with no moon, there was little opportunity for the crew to see the weather.