Wake Turbulence!

[Flash]

A Challenger 604 had a rough ride due in January after passing through the wake turbulence of an A380 over the Arabian Sea, the Challenger was written off as a result. The Daily Mail has a pic of the interior along with depiction of the incident, given the source I am not sure how accurate the depiction is but at least it looks cool.

 

[BenDog]

Wow....

 

[picklesuit]

That's scary. 1,000'? That seems strange it could drop that much. The physics would be interesting to see...

 

[HAL Pilot]

That's scary. 1,000'? That seems strange it could drop that much. The physics would be interesting to see...

I've been rocked many times by 767s, 757, A330s, 747s etc. flying 3000+ feet above me. The wake slowly drops and drifts with the wind. It drops about 1000 ft for every 15-30 miles behind the aircraft. If you are traveling in the same direction and same speed as the aircraft making the wake turbulence, you can sit in it forever. It normally feels like light chop but when your only 1000 ft below, it can rock the wings on a similar sized aircraft significantly.

Over the ocean we use the Strategic Lateral Offset Procedure to lessen riding in someone else's wake. It is offsetting right 1 or 2 miles of track so you're not directly under and behind someone ahead of you. We only offset right and it helps even when their is a wind blowing the wake right.

 

[Treetop Flyer]

It seems crazy that the 380 has been flying a decade and this is the first such incident

 

[picklesuit]

And now you know...

 

[jmcquate]

If it happened that way............as Flash alluded to in the OP.

 

[nittany03]

That's scary. 1,000'? That seems strange it could drop that much. The physics would be interesting to see...

Well if you throw a bizjet into a crazy turbulence-induced multiple-aileron-roll type scenario, it's not farfetched to think that it may have come out of the vortex in some ridiculous nose-low unusual attitude, with airspeed rapidly increasing. If so, it may have taken that much altitude for the aircrew to regain their SA, level the wings, and pull to the horizon.

 

[HAL Pilot]

A widebody in a high altitude stall (35,000-40,000 fee)t would probably take 10,000 feet to recover.

 

[picklesuit]

I wasn't questioning the 10K of altitude loss after the departure from controlled flight...I was just unaware about high level wake turbulence. I always thought that was an issue around the airfield...