--- title: How Dangerous is Turbulence? description: Ten people had to be treated in hospital after 'extreme' turbulence from Athens to Philadelphia. How do you stay safe? canonical: https://time.com/4889697/how-dangerous-is-turbulence/ author: Rachel Lewis article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-08-07T16:30:55.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:57:53.786Z og:title: How Dangerous Is Turbulence? og:description: How to avoid getting hurt og:url: https://time.com/4889697/how-dangerous-is-turbulence/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4629942a1ff38f55/6988d8ac8fd2ee07fe358508/plane-turbulance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Image of airplane wing flying above the clouds og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How Dangerous Is Turbulence? twitter:description: How to avoid getting hurt twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4629942a1ff38f55/6988d8ac8fd2ee07fe358508/plane-turbulance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How Dangerous Is Turbulence? > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Aug 7, 2017 4:30 PM UTC  Cropped image of an airplane, only showing the wing while in flight above the clouds. Cropped image of an airplane, only showing the wing while in flight above the clouds. Getty Images by [Rachel Lewis](https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/) ## Rachel Lewis Aug 7, 2017 4:30 PM UTC [At least 10 passengers needed hospital treatment](http://time.com/4889529/american-airlines-flight-turbulence/) after extreme turbulence affected a flight from Athens to Philadelphia this weekend. Those 10 people have all been released from hospital, according to [ABC News](http://abcnews.go.com/US/extreme-turbulence-american-airlines-flight-sends-10-board/story?id=49064208), but should turbulence be something to worry about? Turbulence is the most common form of air injury and around 58 people in the U.S. are injured this way every year, [according to the Federal Aviation Administration](https://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly%5Fsafe/turbulence/). However, among the 298 injuries, three of them fatal, the FAA attributes to turbulence between 1980 to 2008, 184 of those affected flight attendants and 114 affected passengers. In other words, a bumpy flight is nothing to be scared of, British Airways captain Steve Allright told the U.K. newspaper [_The Telegraph_](http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/travel-truths/turbulence-explained-is-it-dangerous/). “Every day I fly, I expect a small amount of turbulence, just as I’d expect the odd bump in the road on the drive to work,” he said. Flight crews have a [scale of severity](http://www.navyaircrew.com/blog/2009/08/30/light-moderate-or-severe-turbulencehow-are-they-defined/) for turbulence: light, moderate, severe and extreme. Moderate turbulence does not scare pilots, according to Allright, who also said extreme turbulence is rare but not dangerous. “In a flying career of over 10,000 hours, I have experienced severe turbulence for about five minutes in total,” he said. Pilots, however, “don’t get more than a general warning” about turbulence, retired US Airways pilot Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger [told USA Today](https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/flights/2014/07/10/5-myths-about-air-turbulence/12301043/). While flying, pilots must rely on reports from other aircraft and then consider whether they can adjust their altitude to avoid areas of reported turbulence. The best way for passengers to stay safe is to wear a seatbelt. Of the three fatalities between 1980 and 2008 in U.S. carriers due to turbulence, [according to the FAA](https://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly%5Fsafe/turbulence/), at least two of these passengers weren’t fastened in. “Keeping your seatbelt fastened is cheap insurance,” Sullenberger said. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4889697/how-dangerous-is-turbulence/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4889697/how-dangerous-is-turbulence/"},"headline":"How Dangerous Is Turbulence?","datePublished":"2017-08-07T16:30:55.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:57:53.786Z","description":"How to avoid getting hurt","url":"https://time.com/4889697/how-dangerous-is-turbulence/","keywords":["Living","Transportation","American Airlines","onetime","onetimetravel"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4629942a1ff38f55/6988d8ac8fd2ee07fe358508/plane-turbulance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel Lewis","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/rachel-lewis/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4629942a1ff38f55/6988d8ac8fd2ee07fe358508/plane-turbulance.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Image of airplane wing flying above the clouds","caption":"Image of airplane wing flying above the clouds","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4889697/how-dangerous-is-turbulence/","name":"How Dangerous Is Turbulence?"}}]}] ```