Annual numbers of commercial transport aircraft encounters with severe or extreme atmospheric turbulence — including invisible clear air turbulence (CAT) — are considered small but consequential. The low-but-steady toll in occupant injuries and, in the rarest cases, fatalities or aircraft damage, ensures constant attention to the issue. These factors have led to further efforts in airline-level risk reduction and, in the United States, new updates to official guidance about CAT.
The entire airline industry has benefited from operators equipping aircraft as “turbulence sensors” by adding software for common benefit. Other advances include increased use of precise turbulence forecasts; flight deck weather radar systems enhanced by real-time, forward-looking turbulence detection; and communication systems that increase awareness of turbulence affecting nearby aircraft.
AeroSafety World articles have described a few airlines’ adoption of systems that automatically gene…
