A new genre has been added to the cycle of flight-cancellation and delay nightmare stories we’ve all grown used to: “Stuck in the ceiling of the plane.”
Earlier this week, an Air Europa flight from Spain to Uruguay hit severe turbulence that injured more than two dozen passengers, including several with neck and skull fractures. A man even “became embedded in the ceiling,” as the New York Times put it. (What.) Videos of the incident show the poor guy being pulled down by other passengers from above the baggage compartment. Another passenger on the overnight flight, Dr. Cecilia Laguzzi, woke up to the turbulence and frantically started searching for her toddler. Someone nearby asked, “Are you looking for a baby?,” and told her he was “up there.” Her child was also stuck in the ceiling, having been ejected from his seat by the extreme jerking movements of the plane. Laguzzi said her son turned out to be fine, thankfully, but she had to tend to other passengers with injuries.
Only a few months earlier, severe turbulence on a Singapore Airlines flight killed a 73-year-old man and injured 71 people. These kinds of incidents tend to be extremely rare — the last time someone died because of turbulence on an American-run airline was in 1997, and between 2009 and 2022 only 163 people in total were severely injured on planes registered in the United States. But this kind of extreme turbulence has been increasing in recent years because of climate change. As one atmospheric-science professor told the Times, episodes of clear-air turbulence, the kind that happens most often at high altitudes and can occur without warning, could triple by the end of the century.
This doesn’t mean flying has become more dangerous, however. NBC recently analyzed data from the National Transportation Safety Board and found the number of major accidents involving large U.S. carriers has declined in recent years. But the industry’s current oligopoly has turned air travel into a pain, put gently. Summertime travel always feels worse. We’re reaching record highs for summer air travel in the past month, and a combination of extreme heat and a shortage of air-traffic controllers is adding to the delays. “Aircraft engines will produce less thrust during takeoff and ascent as a result” of hot air, a professor of aeronautical science told USA Today, and this can impact or even cancel flights. Add in the smaller seats; new costs for virtually everything involved, from picking your seat to checking a bag; intentionally overbooking flights; and, of course, doors flying off of Boeings, and it’s kind of a marvel that we’re still flying at all.
Turbulence isn’t the only manmade disaster passengers have been facing. A recent Delta Airlines flight to Amsterdam had to make an emergency landing after it was discovered that passengers had been served spoiled food. One posted on Facebook that they had a choice of chicken or pasta for the in-flight meal and the pilot ended up announcing that the plane had to turn around to JFK to “evaluate those of us who had the chicken.” People were rebooked on new flights.
So keep that seat belt buckled. And maybe bring a sandwich.
