Sudden turbulence that injured dozens is hard to predict

The Air Canada flight from

a

Vancouver to Sydney faced "un-forecasted and sudden turbulence" about two hours past Hawaii on Thursday, and the plane diverted to Honolulu, airline spokeswoman Angela Mah said.

The flight made an emergency landing after 37 people were injured, nine seriously, during the sudden loss of altitude that sent people flying into the luggage compartments and aisles of the airplane.

The plane may have run into clear air turbulence , which is caused by wind patterns with no visible warning in the sky or ability for aircraft radar to pick it up. Weather forecasters also can't help warn pilots, said Thomas Guinn of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida.

"It's probably one of the most challenging forecast problems we have right now for aviation meteorology," he said.

Passenger Andrew Szucs told The Associated Press that the pilot came on the radio and said they didn't see the turbulence on radar and had "no warning this kind of air drop was going to happen."

Szucs, originally from Ontario but now living in Sydney, said there had been turbulence before the abrupt drop and he was awake, bracing himself.

https://phys.org/news/2019-07-sudden-turbulence-dozens-hard.html