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by eggy 725 days ago
Yeah, you should have more concern over human error and Boeing than this. But, boy, the more I have flown and the older I am, the more I get anxious during turbulence when I fly.
2 comments

I relax when it's turbulent. The airframe can handle it [1], and at least the pilots are awake.

[1] There's a speed limit for turbulence penetration, chosen such that the wings will stall, rather than over-stress the airframe.

Thank you! That's definitely a great way to look at it. Complacency and habit breed accidents. Although not the the Boeing/mechanical issues. Still worried about the ghost in the machine or gremlins!
When was the last time a commercial airliner crashed due to turbulence?
Oh man:

> Several booked passengers cancelled their tickets at the last moment to see a ninja demonstration. These passengers, Albert R. Broccoli, Harry Saltzman, Ken Adam, Lewis Gilbert, and Freddie Young, were in Japan scouting locations for the fifth James Bond film, You Only Live Twice (1967).

The James Bond franchise would likely have been quite a bit different had Broccoli died in 1966. Crazy to think he and his colleagues cheated death because they wanted to play tourist a little bit longer than originally scheduled.

>The Boeing 707 jetliner involved disintegrated mid-air

I'm guessing their use of "disintegrated" there is supposed to be taken literally as dis-integrated, but upon first read, I took it for its more colloquial meaning (which to me is closer to pulverized, turn to dust, dissolve etc).

Then I think we can safely worry about other things than turbulence :)
But you never know... You might be the first one :-)