For the aircraft, turbulence is very rarely dangerous: airliners are built to take far more force than even severe turbulence produces, and planes don't fall out of the sky because of bumps. The real risk is to people who aren't strapped in. Keep your seat belt fastened whenever you're in your seat, and turbulence is mostly just uncomfortable.
What turbulence is
Turbulence is air moving irregularly: rising, sinking and swirling. A plane flying through it rides those changes, like a boat on choppy water. The main causes are:
- Convection: rising columns of warm air, especially near clouds and storms.
- Mountains: wind flowing over ranges creates waves and eddies downstream.
- Jet streams: the boundary between fast and slow air at cruising altitude causes clear-air turbulence, which happens in clear skies and is hard to see coming.
- Wake turbulence from other aircraft, which spacing rules are designed to avoid.
How strong it gets
| Light | Slight bumps; drinks ripple. Most turbulence is this. |
|---|---|
| Moderate | Noticeable jolts; walking is difficult, loose objects move. The seat-belt sign goes on. |
| Severe | Large, abrupt changes; unbelted people and objects can be thrown about. Rare. |
| Extreme | Violent, very rare, and avoided by forecasting and routing. |
Why the plane is fine
Airliners are certified to withstand a load of 2.5 times their weight upward and 1 times downward without lasting damage, and then to survive 1.5 times those loads, the “ultimate” load, without breaking. Turbulence that strong is extraordinarily rare. Wings are designed to flex, too: in Boeing's ultimate load test of the 787, the wings bent upward by about 25 feet without failing. That flex you see out of the window in bumpy air is the wing doing its job.
Who actually gets hurt
Injuries come from people and objects being thrown about inside the cabin. Flight attendants, who spend much of the flight on their feet, are hurt far more often than passengers, and among passengers, most serious injuries are to people not wearing seat belts. Rare severe events make headlines: in May 2024, a Singapore Airlines flight from London hit sudden severe turbulence over Myanmar; one passenger died and dozens were injured, many of them unbelted. Events like that are rare given the millions of flights each year, and a fastened belt is by far the best protection.
How to deal with turbulence
- Keep your belt fastened, loosely, whenever you're seated, even with the sign off.
- Pick a seat over the wings if bumps bother you: the ride is smoother there than at the back.
- Breathe slowly. A few rounds of box breathing (in for four, hold, out for four, hold) calm the body's alarm response. Try the box breathing timer before you fly, so it's familiar.
- Watch the crew. Calm cabin crew mean routine bumps.
- Have something to focus on: a film, music, work. Absorption helps.
Is turbulence getting worse?
Some research suggests climate change is strengthening the wind shear in jet streams and, with it, clear-air turbulence over busy routes such as the North Atlantic. Forecasting is improving at the same time: pilots get turbulence forecasts, reports from planes ahead, and increasingly automated data shared between aircraft.
Get used to the sound
For nervous flyers, familiarity helps. Our free cabin noise is a real in-flight recording, and Flight plays it while you focus at your desk, for a flight with no bumps at all.