Severe injury on Flybe flight caused by ‘clear air turbulence’

The report into an incidence of severe turbulence on a Flybe flight from Birmingham to Belfast, which resulted in severe injury to a member of the cabin crew has suggested a number of meterological factors might have caused the event.

The severe turbulence occurred over the Isle of Man on February 7, just after 9am in the morning.

One crew member was thrown off her feet and sustained serious injuries.

She was given medical assistance by a doctor, who was travelling as a passenger, and transferred to hospital after landing at Belfast. One passenger suffered a minor injury.

Today (September 11) the Department of Transport’s Air Accident Investigation Branch (AAIB) reported two meteorological phenomena as candidate causes of the clear air turbulence (CAT) that caused the calamity.

The report states: “The data showed that during the morning a deep area of low pressure over the Atlantic had moved rapidly to the east, building a transient ridge of high pressure over the United Kingdom.

“There were two strong jetstreams (both over 100 knots) either side of the UK, which would have given rise to a large windshift.

“A wind data model at 400 hPa (FL240) showed that a large windshear would have been close to the Isle of Man at 0900 hrs and there were indications of a temperature gradient in the same area.

“Either or both of these factors can give rise to CAT. Analyses of the other available data suggested that cumulonimbus activity was not likely to have caused the turbulence and that this was a CAT event arising as a result of a large windshear in the vicinity of the Isle of Man.”