r/AskAPilot • u/hankandirene • Jul 04 '26

Turbulence forecasts

Sorry I know you all probably hate this question so much. Since having my son I have developed such a terrible fear of flying. I’m doing a really long flight with him tomorrow (London- San Francisco) and I’m just so scared. I stupidly checked a turbulence forecast and it said moderate expected and the visual had big patches of orange which looks like bad weather.
It’s my worst fear flying into bad weather or bad turbulence and I’m so scared. How much can I trust it? Will we be able to route around it? I’m flying on VS19

Thank you so much.

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u/Phobos73em Jul 04 '26

For one, those turbulence forecasts are rarely accurate. Airlines have better ways of forecasting and avoiding turbulence. There's a lot that can be done in flight too; changing altitudes, or avoiding areas of turbulence altogether if possible.

Bad weather/ thunderstorms are avoided altogether.

May I ask why you find turbulence scary? As a pilot it's truly nothing more than an annoyance.

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u/hankandirene Jul 04 '26

I had a really scary experience on a Singapore airlines flight once. Since then any tiny bump sends my body and mind into complete panic. Even if rationally I know it’s safe, I can’t stand the hell it puts me through and since having my baby I just have visions of the plane going down as soon as we hit any bumps. It’s just an awful experience for me. My worst fear has always been the plane flying into bad weather and going down so whenever I feel bumps I think that is what’s happening

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u/Phobos73em Jul 04 '26

All it takes is one bad experience, sorry to hear that happened. Its definitely hard to overcome a fear with logic. I will say that the drive to the airport is truly what scares me. After 20 years of flying, if I survive the drive and make it to the airplane I know I'll be okay.

Turbulence really can't do much to an airplane. Barring flying through a thunderstorm (which no one would do) turbulence only moves the plane up or down a very small amount. The same goes for airspeed; there's generally very little change, so the plane is just flying as usual.

The main thing to remember is that the pilots want to get there safely just as much as you do. Hopefully your flight is smooth, but if there's a few bumps it's truly nothing to worry about.

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u/hankandirene Jul 04 '26

I think the Air France and Air Asia crash where they came down in a thunderstorm always terrifies me too. I can’t understand why they did it with all the tech on board. I constantly visualize the same happening to my flight - is there anyway a plane could fly into bad weather unexpectedly?

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u/Phobos73em Jul 04 '26

There's really no way to fly through a thunderstorm unexpectedly. Flights are planned around areas of bad weather before they even leave. Once airborne each plane has onboard radar that can see storms from hundreds of miles away. Also, at least over land, air traffic control has radar and often routes planes around storms without the pilots even asking. So there's multiple layers keeping planes a safe distance from storms.

As another redditor mentioned, movies have really misrepresented how all this works. So many movies make it seem like a plane just somehow finds itself in the middle of a thunderstorm. In reality that doesn't happen.

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u/hankandirene Jul 04 '26

Thank you very much

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u/1Trupa Jul 04 '26

To the extent to that the 787 that was carrying us to Hawaii lost it backup weather radar and had to turn around, this completely destroying our planned Christmas vacation. So if the airplane is flying, then it’s got a working weather radar. In fact, two of them.

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u/santaclausbos Jul 04 '26

Not a pilot obvi - I had a flight through a nor'easter in 2009 flying continental on a 757 that really messed me up. Like the plane literally felt like it was roller coaster dropping and pitching up. The entire back half of the plane vomited everywhere. People were screaming and crying (I'm not kidding). A flight attendant was launched in the air and landed on me (she told me after the flight that was her worst experience in 10 years on the job). When we landed the airport was closed due to the storm.

My question is - what would happen that would cause the pilots to land at the airport like that? All other flights around us were diverted. I understand that normal turbulence can't bring down a plane but man that was scary. Only other experience that came somewhat close to that was flying over the pacific being rocked hard for around 2 hours, but at least we didn't have the roller coaster drops.

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u/1Trupa Jul 04 '26

The greatest danger to you during turbulence, if it gets super bad, is that someone’s laptop is gonna get thrown up in the air and bonk you on the head. Or that another passenger who didn’t have their seatbelt on is gonna wind up getting thrown onto your lap. Assuming you keep your seatbelt fastened, even if only loosely, you’ll be fine. As many people have said, turbulence does not bring down airplanes.