Bad Weather on Flight
I was sitting in my seat, thinking of what a good time we all would have once I reach home, I expect to see my friends over for dinner at my place and once the party starts it would carry on till morning wee hours.
I was wondering whether we have enough vodkas and sweet drinks to be served to the ladies joining us, I knew we would never fall short of hard drinks for my colleagues as I would always pick up a bottle or two from my flights abroad.
Coming back to my present moment I looked at my Navigation Display, where the A/c position is shown in addition to other details like nearby airports, speed of the A/c on ground, nearby Airports, and the most important of all the weather in front of the A/c.
All the Airline planes fly with a device called Weather Radar, which sends a beam of signals from its unit and if there is a solid substance in the direction of the beam, it is received back as a colorful display on the display to the pilot.
As the higher the solid mass of the Clouds, the higher will be the effort required by the airplane to pass through the patch, which of course also includes other factors such as Winds of very strong values in terms of speed, which are in lateral and vertical direction, in past has and in future can toss the airplane from lateral to vertical plane and can possibly cause plane to break into pieces.
This is how all Airline planes come to know if there is a strong weather in front of the plane, and if possible change their course to avoid the same.
I saw a small patch of red and amber color appearing on the screen in front of me.
I asked my colleague to inform Air Traffic Control for permission to deviate on the Left side with approx deviation of 25 NM, (approx 45Kms).
I asked my colleague to Switch on Engine Anti Ice on, to prevent Ice Formation.
I switched on the seatbelt signs ON, and in order to take further precautions called Cabin crew inside and told them to stop their services and restrict no movement in the cabin.
We must have flown for approx 15 minutes and crossed the built up of weather on our right, when suddenly A/c began to shook violently, I looked up at the screen again and saw no difference on the clear screen.
I was keeping a close watch on my Primary Flight Displays, which shows a/c Speed and Altitude, and observed the Airspeed increasing, I disconnected the Auto Throttle and brought the Thrust Levers back to control the Airspeed, Before I could make a move a/c began to climb and climbed to 34,100 feet, instead of 34,000 feet in no time and following which A/c immediately (with in 2 seconds) went into a Nose Down attitude and started to lose altitude and descended to 34,800 feet, all this while Auto Pilot was on.
I announced to my colleague that I am disconnecting Auto Pilot and will be hand flying the A/c.
I heard no response from him, (as a standard rule in Aviation we always look for a response from each other to confirm that the action was understood and accepted by the other person).
Since the Turbulence was severe and the A/c speed was varying, I expected a response from my colleague for a back up guard incase something goes wrong and is gone unnoticed, but heard no response from him, I looked at him and realized that he was too shock to get out of the situation, I announced loudly “Please Give some Speed and Altitude Callouts”.
This probably woke him up, as he realized and said “Ohh yes sir, Speed is 280 knots, altitude 33,800 feet”.
I added power and while manually flying the A/c I turned left and added power to climb the A/c and controlling the speed which was varying at a very high rate.
I turned further left and climbed back to 34,000 feet.
After approx 10 minutes of flying Manually and deviating further left, the Turbulence reduced and a/c began to enter smooth conditions, that is when I reengaged Auto Pilot and informed Chennai as well as Yangoon Control (Air Traffic Controller of Country Rangoon) about the Turbulence experienced at 34,000 feet, to avoid other A/c to experience similar turbulence.
Then I spoke to In flight Cabin Crew In charge and asked her whether everyone was ok, she checked the rear cabin on interphone with the rear cabin crew in charge and got back to me saying “Captain, No passengers were hurt, as the seat belt signs were ON and you did made an announcement to stop movement in the cabin, so we did not allow anyone to move around, infact we were seated ourselves”.
I got my attention back to my Flight deck and realized the whole thing must have taken less than 20 minutes from start to end but it seemed like a never ending time of eternity.
As the conditions smoothened out, we informed cabin crew that they could get up and continue with their services and as a precaution we will still keep the Seat Belt signs On, and the passenger can be allowed to use toilets one by one, and no hot beverages should be served in the cabin.
After about 05 minutes I got a call from the cabin and got a message that the In Flight In charge wanted to see me, I asked her to please come in.
She came in the cockpit looking worried and asked me “If everything was ok”, and I could make out from the look on her face, that she was very worried, I told her that everything is ok now, and we just crossed a rough patch of weather, she told me that “The passengers were very scared and infact one of the passenger got so scared that he inflated the life vest, (which is used by the passengers to stay afloat in case of an ditching of an A/c in water), and it would be really nice if I could make an announcement explaining me the reason behind the turbulence and if we expected any further turbulence on the way as well”.
I told her that I will make an announcement to the effect, as soon as I can.
After a while I made an announcement stating our sincere apologies for the turbulence and further adding that there was nothing that could have been done to prevent the same, as it occurred without any indications on the cockpit, and infact we don’t expect any further turbulence as per any indications as well as any other Pilot reports passed on by other planes, but as a precaution we are keeping the seat belt signs On, and we request everyone to remain seated with their seat belts fastened, unless required to use washroom facilities.
I got back to my flight duties and got another call from my In Flight In charge appreciating the announcement and explaining the positive impact it has on the passengers when they hear the same from the Flight deck.
As we flew further, the a/c started to experience Turbulence of a lighter nature at the same level of 34,000 feet, and we were under Kolkatta control, I asked my colleague to inform Kolkatta if we could climb upto 36,000 feet, on which we were asked to be standby.
After about 15 minutes of more battering by the weather I asked my colleague to remind Kolkatta about the request for a higher level, which was again put on standby by the latter.
As another 10 minutes passed by and we received no response from the Kolkatta control I made a Radio Telephoney call on VHF to Kolkatta control stating “ Kolkatta Control, This is Ja—…., this is our 3rd call and we have been informing you for the past 45 minutes that we have been getting moderate to severe turbulence at Fl 340 (34,000 feet), could you give us a reason for not giving us a climb to a higher FL 360 or 380”.
At this I got an immediate response from the Kokatta control saying “ JA–…. Cleared to climb to FL 360 (36,000 feet).
I replied saying “ cleared to climb to Fl 360, and thank you for your response”
We climbed to Fl 360, and weather conditions smoothened out completely at
Fl 360.
There was no further operational effect on the flight, and operations were normal.
After landing, we parked the A/c on the bay, and after completing my Checklist I got down from the A/c waiting for my colleague to get down, while I waited near the last bus waiting for last few passengers to be taken to the terminal.
I saw around 6-8 people waiting as they were the last one to be on board the bus.
I saw a couple waiting for the bus, and as soon as I got closer to the bus, once couple who were waiting to board the bus looked at me, and the women of the couple came up to me and told me, “I think you have the most amazing job, we wanted to thank you for your efforts and bringing us down safely”.
I replied “ thanks a lot for your kind words, but I was just doing my job”.
After waiting for a while my colleague also came, and we boarded the bus with the rest of the approx 6-8 passengers.
Once we got into the bus, it takes about 5-8 minutes for the bus to take people from the Bay to the International side Terminal.
This time another gentleman in the bus came up to me and said “That was agood job, Captain but you scared the shit out of us, this was the most scariest flight that I have been on”.
I replied “Sir, I’m sure you would agree with me on this, I have been flying for the past 16 years, and I have definitely seen worse than this”, while saying all this and trying to hide the emotions involved with the lie coming out of my mouth
The lady who spoke to me came up to me and spoke again “ This was one of the most scariest flight I have been onto, we just got married and were at Singapore for a week, and we did lot of adventurous rides there, but this was by far the most scariest of my lifetime, thanks to you that we are still alive”.
I replied “Ma’m I am really sorry for the Turbulence, but we could not avoid it as there was no means of knowing it before hand, and I would be lying if I said I did something extra ordinary by flying ourselves safely onto the ground, these panes are designed in such a way that they can fly into such turbulence and more, without affecting safety, but on a lighter note I am glad I could offer some adventure and a ride on the flight”.
In order to calm the situation, I went up to say hello to the rest of the passengers in the bus and introduced my self and my colleague and in the process met her husband as well, who must be in his mid 30s and was sitting very quietly.
I told her “ Is he your husband, and introduced myself saying hello sir, I am Pawan”. To which he replied “hello, I am sorry but I am still in a shock, and won’t be able to speak much”. I asked him whether he wanted any medical attention or something, and he replied in a negative.
I went to the Baggage belt picked up my bag and saw the same couple again, I asked the lady if she was buying any liquor, to which she said only one liter, I told her that she can buy two liters for each passenger, and asked her whether she could buy one bottle of Black Label for me, from the Delhi Duty free, as being a crew we are not allowed to buy the same.
She agreed and bought me a bottle, which was handed over to me outside the airport after I paid the charges for the same in cash, and after thanking the couple I proceeded to the Transport department to take a cab back home.
During my trip back home at around midnight, the flashback of the incident kept occurring in front of my eyes, and I knew I need a drink before I could sleep tonight.