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Article: Graphical turbulence: turbulence-predicting tools aren't as good as ones for icing or thunderstorms, but they're getting better and worth a look.(WX SMARTS)
- Article from:
- IFR
- Article date:
- January 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Belvoir Media Group, LLC. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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The number of accidents where turbulence was a contributing or causal factor has steadily increased over the last two decades. Joe the pilot is not doing a good job minimizing his exposure to dangerous turbulence, dealing with unexpected turbulence or, most likely, both.
Compared to scheduled air-carrier operations, a general aviation pilot is a couple orders of magnitude more likely to be fatally injured in a turbulence-related accident, according to a recent Federal survey. Turbulence was the culprit in 664 accidents that resulted in 609 deaths, 239 serious injuries and 584 minor injuries. All but one of the 609 deaths happened in GA.
While pilot ...