Misinformation takes flight as airline meets turbulence
New Delhi, Aug 08: Statutory warning: This article might offend readers who think air turbulence is the fault of airlines.
A recent incident in which 17 passengers were injured due to turbulence on an Air India flight from Phuket has spawned a litany of complaints on social media — some ludicrous, others fanciful and downright laughable. But all based on the ill-informed belief that Air India is to blame for the injuries.
As videos of the aftermath emerged online, social media users were quick to find fault with the hapless airline, which has been the butt of criticism for several incidents in the past couple of years, including the fatal crash in Ahmedabad last year.
While some demanded Air India’s boycott or deemed it worse than roadways buses, others questioned the airline, its pilots, and even called its management “profit hungry corporate leeches”.
One user on X said Air India should be held accountable.
“Air India may call it a ‘brief turbulence-related event’. For those onboard, it was anything but brief.
“Accountability requires more than a routine statement. The DGCA must establish whether weather intelligence, seat-belt protocols and crew response were adequate—and publish its findings. Passengers are not cargo. Safety cannot be managed through PR,” the post said.
What these miffed social media complainants ignored was that turbulence can occur unexpectedly, which is why all airlines, including Air India, advise passengers to keep their seat belts on all the time, especially while sleeping. The botttom line is that turbulence is a weather phenomenon, which is not in control of the airline or the pilots.
However, that reality check was missing from the analysis of complainants, one of whom argued on Instagram that the airline was safer when it was owned by the government.
“Why with Air India always? Their record of safe travel appears to be nowhere near when it was govt owned. Force them to rebrand it as Tata Air. Why sully sovereign brand ‘India’. We can reserve Air India for some other era,” he said.
In a video of the incident posted on Instagram, people commented “Air India maut ka kuva (well of death)”, “boycott India”, “If it’s Boeing, I’m not going”, and “Air india use way too old flights”. Presumably, that person meant aircraft.
“Poorly maintained piece of garbage flying in the air. Govt should do something about it. Human life is extremely precious and fragile! Govt should fine these profit hungry corporate leeches to their extent!” said one post.
Another argued that the incident could have been avoided had the pilot informed passengers about the bad weather or “diverted around the bad weather patch”.
That argument is ill-informed, according to aviation experts. Modern aircraft are perfectly capable of flying through a storm or bad weather. Pilots do deviate from the approved flight path if the storm is particularly intense. But turbulence is something else. It is not visible on radar, the experts point out.
Aviation scientist Venu Ganapuram said turbulence can occur when there is difference in air pressure in an area.
“For a flight to be stable, it is important that the distribution of air pressure in a region is uniform. Differences in air pressure locally can cause air turbulence. A flight will experience ups and downs and passengers might feel jerks. If turbulence is heavy, pilots can face difficulty managing the flight and passengers not wearing seat belts may bump into the front seat,” Ganapuram told PTI.
An aircraft experiences turbulence mid-air when there are highly dynamic movements of air masses in its path and clear air turbulence poses bigger challenges for pilots. Climate change is seen as a key factor resulting in incidents of mid-air turbulence.
“Before the start of a journey, pilots are informed of weather conditions they might face according to the route map, which is known. If the possibility of rain or turbulence is known at this stage, then the pilot can inform passengers and prepare beforehand on how to navigate it,” Ganapuram said.
“However, sometimes it is not in the control of pilots also. Dynamic changes may emerge and an unpredictable level of turbulence can occur suddenly during a flight. Under such circumstances, pilots will do their best to maintain a stable flight. Completely avoiding it may not be possible,” he said.
But the science was lost on the social media warriors, one of whom posted, “You should thank the god, otherwise it’s next to impossible to come out of Air India alive”. Another said, “A roadways bus is safer than Air India”, and the third, “That’s the capability of Air India. They show Yamraj to passengers and get them back sometime”.
Still, there were those who sought to set the record straight on social media, arguing that people should be thanking the airline and its pilots for safely landing the aircraft.
One such video, posted on Instagram by ‘digital creator’ Ansh Mehra, has garnered over four lakh views.
“Air India plane lost 300 feet in altitude… Just to set some context, Qutub Minar is 238 feet. Now in such cases, the pilot has to activate his sharpest reflexes and literally behave like a fighter pilot. And you know what, in so many flights, I see people not wearing a seat belt even when the sign is on.
“I see so many people walking in the aisles as if they have come to a park. And the cabin crew always requests them to please sit down. That training that you all ignore is specifically for these moments,” he said.
Mehra also pointed to India being in the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), adding that global warming is “messing up” the climate and thereby contributing to more such turbulence incidents.
Former Air Marshal Sanjeev Kapoor also added a note of reason.
He said in a post on X, “Those most seriously hurt are often passengers not wearing seat belts… The lesson is simple, whenever the Fasten Seat Belt sign is ON put your seat belts. Don’t ignore pilots and crew instructions. They are professionals. It can save you from serious injury.”
