A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
Septemeber 2003 described to me a quite scarey event during his
flight.

He was flying with Brittania Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

I beleive there were some severe thunderstorms in the region on the
morning of the 8th. Can anyone confirm this as the cause, or better
still have access to any flight/aviation reports/information regarding
this incident.

Many thanks in advance.

Keith (Southend)

Keith Southend 2 wrote:

A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
Septemeber 2003 described to me a quite scarey event during his
flight.

He was flying with Brittania Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

While it wasn't as bad as that, when I flew out to New York with Virgin
on 22nd July this year we had to land in a rather potent thunderstorm.
Lots of turbulence. Indeed, there had been so much rain that many of the
roads from JFK to Manhattan were flooded meaning that the drive took
twice as long as it should've. Didn't see anything of the Manhattan
skyline owing to the heavy rain

Jonathan

"Keith Southend 2" wrote in message
om...
A colleague at work on his return from Greece this Monday 8th
Septemeber 2003 described to me a quite scarey event during his
flight.

He was flying with Brittania Airways, flight number BY368(we think),
out of Zakynos (Zante) . It was still dark and one hour into the
flight the aircraft suddenly turned to the left and dropped rapidly
for what seemed a few minutes. The captain or crew made no comment as
to what the problem was, but a number of people said they wouldn't fly
again.

I beleive there were some severe thunderstorms in the region on the
morning of the 8th. Can anyone confirm this as the cause, or better
still have access to any flight/aviation reports/information regarding
this incident.


Happened to me on a flight many years ago. Plane just dropped vertically for
several seconds and everything went virtually weightless. Captain came over
the PA and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, we just
dropped 10,000 feet in ten seconds".

Pretty scary.

John

"jochta" wrote
Happened to me on a flight many years ago. Plane just dropped vertically
for
several seconds and everything went virtually weightless. Captain came
over
the PA and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, we just
dropped 10,000 feet in ten seconds".

That's 60,000 feet per minute rate of descent. Either your memory is a
little rusty or the pilot was exaggerating for effect.
60,000 feet per minute is a colossal rate of descent (nearly 600 knots -
faster than the aircraft's forward speed) and I cannot believe that any
vertical currents in the air come anywhere near that figure. I have heard
of 50 knots in and near thunderstorms (that's about 5,000 feet per minute),
but .......!

Jack

"Jack Harrison" wrote in message
...

"jochta" wrote
Happened to me on a flight many years ago. Plane just dropped vertically
for
several seconds and everything went virtually weightless. Captain came
over
the PA and said something along the lines of "sorry about that, we just
dropped 10,000 feet in ten seconds".

That's 60,000 feet per minute rate of descent. Either your memory is a
little rusty or the pilot was exaggerating for effect.
60,000 feet per minute is a colossal rate of descent (nearly 600 knots -
faster than the aircraft's forward speed) and I cannot believe that any
vertical currents in the air come anywhere near that figure. I have heard
of 50 knots in and near thunderstorms (that's about 5,000 feet per
minute),
but .......!

Jack


Probably my memory! I can't remember exactly what he said, how far, how long
etc. it was a long time ago.

John