Troubled by Turbulence, Stressed by Storms?
A quarter of Britons are said to have some kind of fear of flying, from absolute terror to simply feeling uncomfortable on board a plane.
Recent air accidents, from the AirAsia Flight QZ8501 crash on December 28 off the coast of Borneo, killing 162, to the twin Malaysia Airlines tragedies in 2014, which killed 537 in total, have done nothing to reassure nervous fliers.
From discussion about the roles storms play in accidents to theories about turbulence and landing plane sin high winds, there is a lot of misinformation that can needlessly worry travellers.
So Captain Dave Thomas, British Airways’ Head of Flight Technical and Training, has explained what really happens behind some of the most common myths involved in flying.
‘Flying has always had a bit of mystique to it,’ Thomas told MailOnline. ‘A lot of these fears stem from a lack of knowledge.’
MYTH 1: Whenever a pilot spots rough weather, the best option is to fly over the storm
While we often hear about pilots quickly manoeuvring up and out of a storm cell, it turns out that ‘flying over the storm’ isn’t always an option.
‘It really depends on the type of weather buildup you get,’ Thomas explains. ‘You can get storm clouds that continue on above 40,000 feet, so it may not be an option to go over those.’
‘Without a doubt, storms are best avoided, so a pilot’s first reaction will always be to fly over it – if possible – or fly around it.’
MYTH 2: All thunderstorms are the same (and planes must fly over them)
Not at all!
‘In the UK, we experience very different storm systems than those near the Alps or over North or South America,’ he says. ‘Generally buildups in the UK are less severe.’
‘Different areas and different airports have different characteristics, and often what causes turbulence low to the ground will be topographical features.
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