In recent months, the internet has been rife with videos filmed by passengers during extreme bouts of air turbulence, showing the inside of a plane shaking like a washing machine, with some passengers even flying out of their seats and hitting the ceiling. Violently shaking 30,000 feet in the sky is undoubtedly horrifying, even for the most seasoned of fliers. So if you want said turbulence to be as tolerable as possible, where is the best place to sit?
According to pilot Jimmy Nicholson, “The rear of the aircraft will swing more, the front will swing less.” This statement was echoed by yet another pilot, Dennis Tajer, who said, “often the ride in the back of the airplane feels less stable but depending on the movement of the air, the ride may feel different.”
Tajer added, “the wings are more closely located to the center of gravity of the airplane. Therefore, the ride while sitting near the wings may feel less turbulent than near the tail of the aircraft where vertical input is felt the most.”
When speaking to an air stewardess on a recent flight with Emirates, she informed me that, “Sometimes, the pilots themselves won’t even feel the turbulence due to them being right at the front of the aircraft.” I asked her about the recent, albeit very rare, deadly bout of turbulence experienced by passengers on Singapore Air, and she said “no matter what, passengers should always keep their seatbelts fastened. If the plane goes down, you’re going to go up.”
