Severe turbulence is likely on the rise due to climate change, the BBC reports. The climatic phenomenon caused terror on a Singapore Airlines flight earlier this week, during which a passenger died from a heart attack.
A 2023 study from the UK’s Reading University, cited by the BBC, found that incidents of an especially dangerous form of turbulence had increased by 55 percent over the North Atlantic between 1979 and 2020.
This so-called “clear air turbulence” – which tends to occur without any warning – is caused by jet streams. The study’s authors said wind speed within jet streams was changing due to global warming.
“We should be investing in improved turbulence forecasting and detection systems, to prevent the rougher air from translating into bumpier flights in the coming decades,” according to professor Paul Williams, an atmospheric scientist who co-authored the study.
[See more: China’s top Covid expert says climate change could spark the next pandemic]
The researchers warned that such turbulence was “projected to intensify in response to future climate change,” and was damaging to aircraft. “Every additional minute spent traversing turbulence causes fatigue and increases wear-and-tear on the airframe,” they wrote.
Thunderstorms, another cause of turbulence, are also increasing in intensity according to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
It is not yet known what type of turbulence was experienced by the Singapore Airlines’ flight on Tuesday, but it was extreme enough to cause multiple injuries, leaving 20 passengers in intensive care, and dozens of others with broken limbs and lacerations. A 73-year-old British man died, reportedly from a heart condition, as the plane plummeted through the air and shook wildly.
The aircraft, which had been flying from London to Singapore, was forced to make an emergency landing in Bangkok.
