Turbulence and Regulations

The number of incidents of passengers getting injured when the aircraft encounters turbulence is on the increase. The most recent being 30 people injured after a Uruguay-bound Air Europa flight faced strong turbulence, with one of the passengers being hurled up into an overhead compartment. https://www.indiatoday.in/world/story/boeing-air-europa-flight-turbulence-overhead-bin-spain-uruguay-plane-emergency-landing-2560982-2024-07-02 The flight landed safely in northeast Brazil after the mid-air incident. The reason for aircraft encountering turbulence is not important but what is important is to take steps to mitigate the risks should it happen. This requires that DGCA has a relook at the regulations and some suggestions were given to them.

First was to have a relook at the seat belt regulations. The overview of practices as it stands today is as follows:

a.?????? From taxy out till 10,000 ft after departure

b.?????? During descent from 10,000 feet till chocks on after landing

c.?????? Remainder of the flight it is at the discretion of the PIC

Though the pre flight brief by Cabin crew and/or PIC includes a line that “it is advisable to always have the seat belts on whilst seated” but in reality, it is never really followed. On the contrary one starts to hear the clicking sound of seat belts opening as soon as the cabin crew have finished their rounds to check that the cabin is secured.

It is an acceptable fact that the number of injuries in case the aircraft encounters turbulence will be reduced to almost zero if the passengers had had their seat belt on. It is also a fact that the maximum turbulence encounters are at medium or high levels. The PIC discretion of turning on the seat belt sign should have guidelines issued by the regulator. In many cases it is seen that the seat belt sign comes on as a reaction to the first jerk felt in the aircraft. The cabin crew are seen to continue service whilst the seat belt sign is on and at the most in some airlines the service of hot beverage is suspended. This puts the cabin crew at risk when turbulence is encountered.

In view of the above it was suggested that regulation change should include keeping loosely fastened Seat belts should be made mandatory through out the entire duration of flight. To allow the passengers to use the washrooms the signage should be changed to

1????? The overhead signage which as of today includes seat belts, no smoking and at times use of PEDs should have an additional sign of washroom. In addition to the announcement by cabin crew this sign would let the passengers know that when they can use the washrooms. ?

?2. The washroom sign can be turned green at the discretion of the PIC as per the guidelines given in para 5 below.

As of today DGCA has no published guidelines for the PIC to follow and the PIC has follows what has been passed word of mouth down the line. DGCA needs to issue guidelines which should include

1. Movement of pax for the purpose of physiological needs be permitted above 10,000 ft.
2. Movement of Pax prohibited when ever in IMC due to being in clouds.
3. All services on board be stopped and Cabin Crew seated whenever the aircraft is within 50 miles of an active CB - red or magenta return on the weather radar with tilt setting at appropriate level to see the cross section of the CB at 20,000 ft. Also when overflying a CB cell with a vertical clearance of less than 6000 ft.

The next biggest issue with aircraft encountering turbulence is that onus of avoiding is solely left to the pilot. With the advancement in technology the capability of ground weather based radars are have improved to a level which was hitherto unimaginable. Further because of the fact that they are on ground and are thus not limited by size or space. However no effort has been made to integrate these ground based radars with the ground based surveillance radars. The result of this is that there is never any advisory given to the pilots by the controllers about the potential turbulence areas. It is therefore left to the individual pilots to interpret the weather and ask for avoidance. It was suggested to DGCA that:

a.?????? Surveillance radar displays should have weather overlay on their screens especially of convective clouds.

b.?????? It should be part of the controller duties to advise the aircraft of any weather displayed on their screens.

c.?????? It should be mandatory for the controllers to advise the pilots of any diversion taken by aircraft ahead on a particular route at a particular point. Thereafter it is the discretion of the PIC to take actions as deemed appropriate.

IMD also needs to play a more active role in the whole process and therefore the following was suggested:

a.?????? The nearest IMD weather radar office should update the radar controllers of the doppler weather picture along with the horizontal and vertical extent of CB as well as their forecasted movement.

b.?????? Any gaps in the doppler radar coverage shouldbe plugged, which at present are many.

Lastly certain measures for the airlines were also suggested

a.?????? Required modification needs to be done to the signage in the cabin

b.?????? The airline website should emphasize the requirement of keeping the seat belts on at all times along with pictorial representation of consequences (Similar to the warning on tobacco products)

c.?????? Appropriate changes in SOP and training of CC.

As humans in the air we have no control over the turbulence and therefore the only course of action available to us is avoidance. One loss of life or an injury is one too many.