The recent turbulence incident with Singapore Airlines has left some passengers hospitalized and one person dead.

In light of this worrying incident, questions have been raised about air travel risks and whether climate change could be contributing.

Singapore Airlines Turbulence Incident

After a flight of Singapore Airlines experienced severe turbulence last Tuesday, several people were left injured while one passenger passed away due to a suspected heart attack.

The flight bound for Singapore from London fell into an air pocket as the cabin crew was serving breakfast prior to the turbulence. This prompted the pilots to request an emergency landing.

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Extreme Turbulence

Turbulence mainly occurs due to irregular air movement. This causes the crew and passengers to experience sudden vertical and sideway jolts.

Singapore Airlines' turbulence incident was considered a severe "clear-air turbulence" example. This type of turbulence may happen without any warning.

Clear-air turbulence can be caused by gravity waves that lead to invisible air undulations. Pilots only learn about this by hearing about it from a pilot form before.

These experts typically listen to what a person who traveled the same flight path a few minutes before them says. Ramalingan Saravanan, who heads the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University, noted that this is the best way for them to pick up on such events.

Air Travel Injury

While such incidents could spark fear and worry, they are quite rare. In fact, there have only been 163 hospitalization-requiring injuries across the US from 2009 to 2022. Moreover, the National Transportation Safety Board did not previously report any deaths related to turbulence over an aircraft with a large body from that period.

It is nearly unheard of for turbulence to crash an aircraft. While a plane crashed in 2001, it was due to a technical error rather than being directly turbulence-related.

This was flight 587 of American Airlines from JFK in New York to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. It was confirmed in this case that the turbulence led to failure in the aircraft's vertical stabilizer.

It is also known that the flight crew suffers 79% of turbulence-related injuries. Sara Nelson, the president of the Association of Flight Attendants, says this phenomenon is a grave workplace safety issue for flight attendants.

Is Climate Change Making It Worse?

A 2023 study found that from 1979 to 2020, rates of clear-air turbulence went up by 55% in the North Atlantic, which is one of the busiest flight routes in the world.

Warmer temperatures could impact wind patterns, and a study argues that greenhouse gas emissions are huge contributors to this.

This was also echoed by University of Chicago researchers. They forecasted that warmer temperatures could result in higher wind speeds within the fastest upper-level jet stream.

The study argues that speeds could go up by 2% for every degree Celsius of warmth.

Projections have estimated that warming could increase by up to 4 degrees Celsius by 2100 if emissions persist at the same rate.

Global temperatures have increased by at least 1.1 degrees Celsius since pre-industrial times. The greatest surge was observed in 1975.

Researchers from the University of Chicago say that due to wind speeds, airlines may have to slow their speeds down to limit turbulence's impact.

Turbulence may likely drastically increase across the North Atlantic. A 2021 study projects that there could be a 15% increase in clear-air turbulence instances by 2059.

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