How pilots avoid thunderstorms—and what happens when they can’t
In the movie 2023 Plane with Gerard Butler, a commercial plane is caught in a terrible storm. Dark purple storm clouds smother the sky. The plane shakes and the lights go out. Turbulence throws an unbelted passenger across the cabin. Eventually, a lightning strike knocks out the plane’s power, forcing it to crash in a war zone, which is where the film’s story actually begins.
In reality, plane crashes during thunderstorms are extremely rare, largely because pilots rarely fly into thunderstorms.
“You never intentionally go flying into a thunderstorm, because thunderstorms contain the roughest air, as well as other hazards,” says Patrick Smith, an airline captain and author of the book. Ask the pilot blogging.
How pilots track storms
According to Smith, avoiding thunderstorms involves close collaboration between meteorologists, air traffic control and the flight crew, before and during the flight.
“We receive reports and forecasts before every flight showing where storms might occur,” he says, referring to detailed satellite mapping provided by meteorologists. “But if you’re doing a 12-hour flight, the information you have at the beginning is only so valuable. What you really rely on are real-time tools.”
Part of Smith and other pilots’ job is to constantly monitor the plane’s onboard radar and weather avoidance system (WAS), which tell “where the storms are, how high they are, how fast they’re moving, the direction they’re moving, etc.” “, he said.
“[The radar] “It sends a signal from the plane and it bounces off the water into the clouds and back,” says former pilot Tom Bunn. “The more water, the more intense the storm.”
Another key source of information comes from other drivers
“There could be 20, 30, 40 planes that [air traffic] The control monitors at a certain altitude range,” says Bunn. “Everyone is on the same frequency, you can hear each other. If there is turbulence, you are supposed to announce it.
This combination of radar and information sharing allows pilots to track storms and rough air up to a few hundred miles in advance. They can then ask air traffic control for a change of altitude to avoid turbulence, or a change of route to avoid a storm. Most airlines recommend that pilots stay a minimum distance of 10 to 20 miles from thunderstorms, depending on their severity.
“You see with your radar, it’s color coded,” Bunn explains. “Green is the edge of the storm, it’s bumpy, but it’s not serious. Yellow would be pretty severe and then there’s red. You just want to stay out of it.”
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Advanced weather radars installed in planes show pilots which parts of a storm to avoid. Video: Stunning Light Show – What MASSIVE Thunderstorms Look Like on an Airliner’s Radar!/DIY with Michael Borders
How planes fly through storms
When flying through scattered thunderstorms, pilots may sometimes choose to chart a course through the gaps between storms, rather than deviate too far from their intended path. In these conditions, the guideline distance of 20 miles can provide important protection against unpredictable changes in weather conditions.
“It can change very quickly and you may be in an area where a storm is moving or transforming in a certain way and that clearance is impossible,” Smith says. “You won’t fly into the heart of the storm, but you might get around its edge from time to time.”
For the same reason, he says, it’s generally not advisable to fly over the tops of storms, as hapless pilot Brodie Torrance (Gerard Butler) attempts in the film. Plane.
“Thunderstorms can extend up to what we call flight levels, up to 40 or even 50,000 feet,” he says. While flying over the top of a thunderstorm can be smooth and safe, they can fly away quickly, making it safer to go around them than over them.
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Despite such efforts to avoid it, Smith and Bunn agree that flying in a thunderstorm is rarely as perilous as the films might suggest, although it can make the ride uncomfortable.
“Probably the worst thing that can happen is hailstones, they make little dents in the fender,” Bunn says. “If you crowd the edge of the wing, it won’t be as effective.” Stronger hail can even crack the aircraft windshield, although the vast majority of hail damage to aircraft is more of a financial concern for the aircraft owner than a threat to passenger safety.
Thunderstorms are often accompanied by increased turbulence, which can be uncomfortable and frightening for passengers, but rarely dangerous. The pilot’s protocol is simply to set the autopilot to the optimal turbulence penetration speed, calibrated to maintain stability while minimizing aerodynamic stress, and ride over bumps.
Why pilots avoid landing in storms
The only circumstance in which turbulence can be dangerous is when it occurs close to the ground, which is why pilots are particularly keen to avoid landing during thunderstorms.
“One of the biggest concerns is wind shear,” says Smith. “Wind shear is a sudden change in wind speed and/or direction, which can be dangerous to aircraft at low altitudes. »
He explains that modern planes are equipped with wind shear avoidance systems and that airports also have warning systems for this phenomenon. If wind shear is detected above the runway, “you can enter a holding pattern somewhere and wait for the weather to improve, or you can divert to another airport.”
“These decisions are usually made between pilots and ground dispatchers,” he says. “Ultimately it’s the captain’s decision, but in practice it’s about collaboration.”
And what about the greatest fear of many nervous travelers, a direct lightning strike like the one that destroys the plane’s power systems in Plane?
Lightning strikes plane leaving British Columbia airport ✈️⚡️ #LightningStrike
Airplanes are designed to withstand lightning. Video: Lightning strikes plane leaving British Columbia airport/ @globalnews
“It’s not a problem,” Bunn said. “On average, a plane is hit, I am told, twice a year.” Commercial aircraft electrical systems are designed to withstand these shocks, with backup systems taking over in the event of a rare failure.
“It’s like lightning hitting your car, it just follows the skin,” he explains. “It doesn’t do anything to the people inside the car. Same with the plane. If you get hit by lightning, you just get a flash and a loud noise.”
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