India's SpiceJet under investigation after severe turbulence injures passengers

[jksobonya]

India's SpiceJet under investigation after severe turbulence injures passengers

Key part of article:

CNN affiliate News18 reports that the autopilot function on the B737-800 aircraft stopped working for two minutes mid-flight, resulting in the crew manually flying the plane until it recovered.

 

As a result, the aircraft experienced dramatic turbulence, which caused some overhead bins to open, items to spill out across the plane and emergency oxygen masks to drop. Fifteen people -- 12 passengers and three crew members -- were hospitalized after the plane landed at Durgapur's Kazi Nazrul Islam Airport (RDP).

 

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This seems incredibly hard to believe. How could 2 minutes of non-autopilot flying cause that much turbulence? If the plane was on autopilot, wouldn't there be the same amount of turbulence for those 2 minutes? It doesn't make any sense. It gives the impression that without autopilot, the pilots don't know how to fly the plane. (Maybe they don't - which is scary!)

 

--Jessica

[dfwskier]

This is incredibly misleading.

The article seems to imply that the aircraft entered severe turbulence because the autopilot switched off. That is patently ridiculous.

Planes (except the air force' s stealth varieties) are inherently pretty stable.  if the plane is properly configured and flying straight and level and you turn the AP off, then the plane will keep flying straight and level for some amount of time.. Things do not go all to hell immediately.

In another article about this incident, it is stated that the aircraft had just encountered a major weather system that likely caused the turbulence.

... and yes, I am a licensed pilot...

[jksobonya]

That is patently ridiculous.

Exactly 😄 

--Jessica