Turbulence Forecast Blog » safety

Turbulence leaves woman paralyzed

tb_neg — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:36:08 +0000

A woman was paralyzed this weekend when severe turbulence struck her Continental Airlines flight en route from Houston to McAllen, officials said.
The woman, 47, sustained a fractured neck early Saturday when she was thrown against the ceiling while in the bathroom of Continental Flight 511, the Associated Press reported.

This is a very unfortunate accident. Please remember to remain seated with seat belt fastened at all times on a plane, even if a flight seems smooth.

Giant hole in Qantas 747

tb_neg — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 20:01:52 +0000

A rather scary incident aboard a Qantas flight resulted in shaken people, but no loss of life as a giant hole appeared in a Qantas 747. The cause of the incident is still unknown. Flight QF30 from Hong Kong to Melbourne diverted to Singapore after the incident.

Somewhat disturbing, a report of oxygen mask failure.

Times Online Article.
Sun Article.
BBC Article.
Video of inside.
Video 2.

Qantas

From bad to worse, safety inspections may span into June

tb_neg — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 15:32:59 +0000

It’s good to know the FAA has such a mastery of the situation, as given by this choice quote:

Laura Brown, a spokeswoman for the FAA, said it could not rule out further groundings. “We don’t know,” she said. “We find what we find.”

9 MD-80 Aircraft failed inspections, which made American ground 300 planes. American expects 900 cancellations on Thursday.

IHT Article

CrankyFlier has some insight into the situation over at his blog in this post and this post.