After the tragic Singapore Airlines turbulence incident, which left dozens injured and one dead, former airline pilot Kathleen Bangs has shared the best seat to select if you’re afraid of flying
If your fear of flying makes travelling hell, there’s a simple hack to put your mind at ease.
Nobody exactly likes turbulence, but if a mid-flight rumble sends you into hysterics, it might be worth making some tweaks to your booking. Kathleen Bangs, a former airline pilot and spokeswoman for FlightAware, has shared the best seat to pick if you hate being in the air. It comes after the tragic Singapore Airlines incident in May that saw a plane diverted to Thailand after dropping around 178ft in just 4.6 seconds due to extreme turbulence. Terrified passengers started screaming as oxygen masks fell from the ceiling and luggage dropped from the overhead lockers – leaving dozens injured. Brit Geoff Kitchen, 73, died from a suspected heart attack on board.
According to reports, Kathleen said: “A window seat is a good option for passengers who are nervous about turbulence because they can see the obvious weather conditions through the window.” She added that passengers near the window would also be ‘more protected’ if overhead compartments started opening, which could lead to objects falling.
Experts also claim that those in the back of the plane will suffer the most from turbulence due to the plane’s design, while those seated over the wings or in front will feel ‘more stable’. However, former airline pilot Patrick Smith says selecting a seat purely based on your fear of turbulence is ‘unnecessarily cautious’.
But earlier this month, pilot Arthur Williams warned Brits that turbulence is likely to become worse due to climate change. Speaking on BBC’s Morning Live, he said: “We talk about climate change about a big thing happening all over the world but not making too much of a difference to us, but actually it really is.
“The atmosphere that we live in is a very fragile thing, and if there is a temperature change of a degree or whatever, that means that the difference in extremes between hot and cold air is becoming wider. Therefore the jetstream is becoming more extreme. If we have to fly through that, you are going to get more bumps.” However, Arthur did reassure flyers by stating that 2023 was the ‘safest year in aviation’ and that improvements in technology are helping us to ‘predict’ when bouts of turbulence could occur.
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