Are Flights More Turbulent Lately??

[cindala]

I have spoken with several different friends, who flew in March, April, and May, at different times, and all noted how turbulent their flights were. All the flights were down to Florida. Some were early morning, others were afternoon or evening, but all had the same comments about so much turbulence.

The only common thread between them was that they flew out of Newark, and most flew Continental.

Has anyone else heard this from friends who have traveled? What could be the cause? Are the planes flying at a different altitude now since 9/11? Are there different wind patterns going on? Just curious, and a bit nervous!

 

[DebbieB]

Turbulance is caused by storms and winds and springtime is a more stormy time. The worse turbulance I have ever experienced was on an April or May flight from Atlantic City to Pittsburgh about 7 or 8 years ago. I flew the beginning of May to Florida, no turbulance.

 

[CaliforniaDreaming]

Yeah, it seems everytime I fly in the spring the flights are pretty turbulant. Last March, on our flight back from Orlando, we went between 19,000 and 39,000 feet the entire flight (once we'd go down, we'd go back up). There were bad storms over the east coast, and the captain was trying to find a good cruising altitude (it was a pretty rough flight - US Airways Airbus A319-100).

 

[cindala]

Okay, so this is just a spring thing. Hopefully things will settle down a bit by the end of next month!