Is Boeing 767 A Safe Plane
Shari Alvine
I'm not good with flying. However, on Wednesday morning I'm flying from Gatwick to Bergen, Norway, traveling alone with two young children.
I'm trying desperately to not show my kids how afraid I am of flying - with families in two countries we have to do this all the time. So I have to be mentally prepared for this: the forecast is showing high winds.
Around the time of take-off (10:50) it shows 16-18mps, SSW.
Firstly, your pilots will have access to much more detailed and real-time weather information than you can get. They want to get home safely as much as you do, and will not fly if it is not safe to do so.
If the wind is coming from straight ahead, there is no maximum limit, which is good as aircraft takeoff and land into the wind whenever possible. If the wind is coming from the side - known as a crosswind - the limit in a 737 is about 36 knots/19 mps (the specific number can vary but that's a guide). The reason for this limit is to avoid the winnd blowing the plane off the side of the runway. So if the wind is that strong, hopefully the runway faces into wind, otherwise your pilot may have to delay the takeoff until it calms a bit.
Once the aircraft lifts off the ground, the wind speed is irrelevant (except for navigation purposes). Imagine a fast flowing river. Placing your canoe into the river when it is at such speed is difficult, but once you are in the middle of the water it is smooth as silk. The transition from ground to cruising altitude is similar. The initial climb will probably be turbulent but the aircraft is built to sustain more than nature can throw at it. Once at altitude the wind speed will almost certainly be much more than 100 knots - but just like the fast flowing river, if you close your eyes it will feel nice and smooth.
You should only cancel your flights if you want to throw away your money. Otherwise just try to relax, and understand that many airline delays that you hear of are caused by a pilot choosing safety over schedule.
I want you to ponder the potential answer: "No, those wind speeds are not safe for the 737 to fly in, but they keep doing it anyway". Does that sound like a realistic answer to you? Do you honestly believe that this is the way flight operations are being conducted across the world? When reading it like this, I do not think that this is what you believe, am I right?
And if the weather at your destination has fouled up before you get there, well this is what the divert airport is for. The divert is a pre-planned backup airport that the flight can go to if things turn fouler than expected.
So in the end: yes, your plane will be able to take the winds that prevail on the day of your flight, guaranteed, because if there are worse winds than that, you will not be flying that day.
As you can see on google maps Gatwick's runways are aligned (like many in the UK due to our prevailing winds) roughly east-west. In actual fact the runways are numbered 08 & 26 relating to 080 and 260 degrees respectively.
A wind coming from the SSW, for arguments sake, blow at roughly 200 degrees. Aircraft take off into wind, so you will invariably depart from runway 26. There is therefore a 60 degree difference between take off and wind direction (not exactly, but for illustration sake.)
18 m/s in roughly 35 knots, and if the whole of that wind speed was at exactly 90 degrees to the runway it might be close to the maximum, but it's not, only 60/90 of it is the "crosswind" component. When you calculate the numbers you would have roughly
Bergen airport is roughly north-south, but I imagine the weather there will be considerably different and I'll forgo the same illustration as above - suffice it to say the Pilot will not fly outside of his own and his aircraft's abilities. They always have the ability to divert, to wait out bad weather, or to turn back.
Those are the B737-800 that are in flight at the moment of typing this (which is around midnight in UK, so not the busiest time of the day!). If you bother to count, you'll see that there are 1375 of them. And this happens at all times, every day of the year, no matter what the wind is.
Please relax, as much as you can. The safety of your trip is the number one priority of the airline. As far as 'bumps' are concerned, there are always possibilities of them occurring, but there is no aeronautical reason to be concerned. Occasionally there are "bumps" in flight that will be uncomfortable, but very rarely injure the passengers belted in properly.
A crosswind during takeoff is no big deal, as long as it's below the airplane's limits. The airplane starts off with all wheels solidly on the ground, which makes it easy to keep it pointed down the runway.
The demonstrated maximum crosswind for a 737-800 is either 33 or 36 knots, depending on the presence or absence of winglets on the wingtips. An 18 m/s (35 knot) SSW wind at Gatwick runway 26 works out to a crosswind component of around 29 knots, well below the limit.
Keep in mind that this is a demonstrated maximum: Boeing has shown that the airplane can always take off or land safely with a wind of this strength. The actual limit of what the plane can handle is higher (probably somewhere around 40 knots or so, given the sort of safety margins the airline industry favors).
What you're going to experience: the airplane will roll down the runway and take off, just like normal. Once you're off the ground, you'll feel a bit of bumpiness as the airplane climbs up through the surface turbulence layer. Once the wheels are up, the flaps are retracted, and you're a few hundred meters up, it should smooth out, and the flight will be no different from any other.
Prefix - I don't recommend you read the link to this source as it lists worst case scenario events (imagine you wanted to take up soccer and were researching the safety of the sport by searching for "worst ever soccer injuries", you would never take the usually very safe sport up, it is a terrible method for research).
I know I didn't directly answer your question about wind speeds, but that is because I do not need to and others have done so for you. It doesn't matter - the pilot will 100% not fly if he has even any idea that doing so will be unsafe.
Now, let's say that you are super unlucky, you are on one of the very, very, very rare flights that has an incident (let's say it's due to crosswinds, as you fear) - what is the likely outcome? A delay in your travels and a bump. 99% of all incidents involving jet aircraft do not involve fatalities.
If you do read through the incident list of any type, most of them will be hard landing, bird strikes etc. that usually involve emergency landings, with all of the passengers calmly leaving the aircraft with nothing more than a couple of bumps.
You should also know, in addition to all that has states, pilots often ask pilots of other aircraft that are flying in the same direction for condition reports. These are to make sure that any unexpected turbulence (a disturbance in the air) can be avoided.
Technology helps a lot, and weather radar is getting better constantly. However, it is still not perfect - which is why despite all the technology, advanced reports, weather analysis and precautions - pilots still rely on other pilots flying to give them an idea of what the actual air feels like for them, to avoid any unpleasant bumps.
Doug Drury does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
The American aerospace giant Boeing has been synonymous with safe air travel for decades. Since the 1990s, Boeing and its European competitor Airbus have dominated the market for large passenger jets.
But this year, Boeing has been in the news for all the wrong reasons. In January, an emergency door plug blew off a Boeing 737 MAX in mid flight, triggering an investigation from United States federal regulators.
The fifth event occurred on a United Airlines 737-8 flight from the Bahamas to New Jersey. The pilots reported that the rudder pedals, which control the left and right movement of the aircraft in flight, were stuck in the neutral position during landing.
The door plug was installed by a Boeing subcontractor called Spirit AeroSystem. The door plug bolts were not properly secured and the plug door fell off in flight. The same aircraft had a series of pressurisation alarms on two previous flights, and was scheduled for a maintenance inspection at the completion of the flight.
Spirit got its start after Boeing shut down its own manufacturing operations in Kansas and Oklahoma, and Boeing is now in the process of buying the company to improve quality oversight. Spirit currently works with Airbus, as well, though that may change.
Critics say the culture at Boeing has changed since Airbus became a major competitor in the early 2000s. The company has been accused of shifting its focus to profit at the expense of quality engineering.
Former staff have raised concerns over tight production schedules, which increased the pressure on employees to finish the aircraft. This caused many engineers to question the process, and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fine Boeing for lapses in quality oversight after tools and debris were found on aircraft being inspected.
Several Boeing employees noted there was a high staff turnover rate during the COVID pandemic. This is not unique to Boeing, as all manufacturing processes and airline maintenance facilities around the globe were also hit with high turnover.
As a result, there is an acute shortage of qualified maintenance engineers, as well as pilots. These shortages have created several issues with the airline industry successfully returning to the pre-pandemic levels of 2019. Airlines and maintenance training centres around the globe are working hard to train replacements, but this takes time as one cannot become a qualified engineer or airline pilot overnight.
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