What causes air turbulence and is the climate crisis making it worse?

On international scheduled flights, fatalities directly caused by turbulence are incredibly rare. Pilots are usually able to give advance warning of most types of turbulence and ensure all on board are strapped in.

On smaller private planes or business jets, serious injuries or deaths have been more frequent, with the US National Transport Safety Board recording more than 100 injuries and dozens of deaths in just over a decade on domestic flights, although fatalities have mostly occurred when turbulence has caused the planes to crash.

Yes, according to at least one study. Scientists at Reading University said their research showed higher temperatures as a result of the climate crisis were leading to significant increases in turbulence across transatlantic flights.

Incidents of severe turbulence increased by 55% between 1979 and 2020, they found, owing to changes in wind velocity at high altitudes.

Prof Paul Williams, one of the authors of the study, said it showed predicted choppier skies had already arrived. He added that the aviation industry needed to invest in better systems to forecast and detect turbulence.