Flight 8
What Goes Around, Comes Around, and Can Really Frighten You
I experienced the very worst of airline travel, and I’m still a vocal fan!
And then there are the two go-arounds I have experienced. A “go around” is an aborted landing of an aircraft as it is on its final approach. It occurs because the pilot is not satisfied that all the requirements for a safe landing are in place. The first occurred in 1987 on an Aerolineas Argentinas Boeing 747 following a twelve-hour flight south to Buenos Aires from New York, and the second in October 2018 on a Swiss Airbus 320 flight from Athens up to Zurich.
In both cases the approach was very turbulent. As you get close to the runway, the air generally smooths out and any turbulence the aircraft experiences normally stops shortly before the wheels touch down. On both flights we were making a final approach to land, and we were coming in fast, and we were bouncing around. Just as the runway started to speed by below us, the plane’s nose rose, and the engines powered up to climb. Pilots tell me that go-arounds occur quite frequently, that they practice this exercise regularly, and that they are safe. In both cases the flight crew told us the cause was wind shear. So, if this happens to you, don’t worry . . . and enjoy the ride!
I used to hate midair turbulence, but after fifty years of flying, I have come to accept it as a necessary part of moving through the earth’s atmosphere in a long, cylindrical aluminum tube. My brother has always told me that turbulence is harmless and that all planes are built to withstand wind forces much greater than we might ever experience while flying in a large commercial airliner. Nevertheless, when you are flying smoothly at 35,000 feet in clear skies and suddenly you are bouncing around, up and down and left to right, and you look out to see the plane’s wings appearing to flap about, it is disconcerting, despite what my brother says!
Turbulence is a sudden change in airflow that can be caused by several factors. The most common trigger is turbulent air in the atmosphere, but hot thermal air rising from the ground can also be a cause. Mechanical turbulence is caused by the landscape beneath the plane, such as large mountain ranges. And as if there is not enough bad news associated with global warming, I recently read a study that suggests air turbulence is expected to increase as the climate heats up.
By far, the worst turbulence I ever experienced was on a short-haul flight from Montreal to New York LaGuardia and it was clear air turbulence, or CAT for short. We were at cruising altitude and the skies were beautifully clear, when out of nowhere the plane seemed to drop out of the sky, bounced straight up, and then fall straight down again. I can only describe it as if we were on a roller coaster, although the plane stayed horizontal to the ground as it bounced up and down for perhaps thirty seconds.
As I looked around me, everyone seemed to be holding the back of the seat in front of them. Each time the plane bounced up or down, the air was punctuated by shouts and screams. And it was surreal because some people were holding hands and praying, while others, perhaps less experienced passengers, were smiling and thinking that this was just another “fun ride.” There was debris strewn throughout the plane, and some people were hurt, primarily flight attendants who had been busy, up and about at the time, serving passengers.
Since that experience, I am never in my seat with my seat belt unbuckled. On long-haul flights of more than six or seven hours, I do get up to walk about the cabin, but I always keep the time out of my seat limited. And whether I am asleep in a 180-degree lie-flat bed or simply in my seat reading, I always have my seat belt buckled up. I recommend you do as well.