Pilot reveals area with worst turbulence
Pilot and former Bachelor Australia star Jimmy Nicholson has revealed which area in the world has the worst turbulence in a viral video.
Nicholson, who has over five years of experience, took to TikTok to explain the areas where pilots can expect the worst turbulence and how he believes that the recent Singapore Airlines horror flight did not actually experience a "sudden drop".
In the clip, he explained that pilots can expect the worst turbulence around the equator in what is called the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ).
“This is where the winds with the northern hemisphere often converge with the winds of the southern hemisphere often causing bad weather and turbulence,” he said.
He added that the ITCZ changes throughout the year, with it affecting different areas between January and July.
“As you can see here, this is the approximate location of the convergence zone on the 21st of May,” he explained using a graph that showed an area that was “the exact area of where the [Singapore Airlines] incident happened."
“As you can see from flightradar, the flight was tracking from Singapore to London and then made a left turn and ended up diverting into Bangkok," he added.
He said that the 6000 foot drop was not a "sudden" drop as a result of severe turbulence, but a controlled descent.
“The plane descended from 37000 feet at six minutes past the hour, down to 31000 feet at 12 minutes past the hour,” he said.
“This is not a sudden drop due to turbulence, this is a controlled descent likely because the plane needed to divert into Bangkok, or because they were descending out of the turbulence.
“This is a very sad and very rare event,” he continued. “But it is important to remember that these things don’t happen very often."
He added that pilots do their best to avoid turbulence, but sometimes it does happen unexpectedly.
“This is why pilots always say on the PA when you’re seated make sure you seatbelt is fastened in case we experience an unexpected turbulence.”
Image: TikTok