An investigation has revealed how a South African Airways (SAA) flight turned chaotic when it hit sudden turbulence mid-air, injuring four cabin crew members – one of them seriously – after some were flung against the ceiling.
The Airbus A330-300 was cruising at 41 000 feet on a domestic flight from Cape Town to Johannesburg on 27 October last year when it encountered clear-air turbulence – an invisible and unpredictable kind of turbulence that doesn’t show up on radar.
According to a report by the South African Civil Aviation Authority, the aircraft began shaking and dipping unexpectedly.
Instead of allowing the autopilot – which is designed to keep the plane stable in turbulence – to manage the situation, the first officer (co-pilot) switched it off to try regain control manually.
This decision went against Airbus guidelines, which recommend leaving autopilot on and using speedbrakes. These are small wing panels that help slow the aircraft down safely during high-speed turbulence.
‘Pitch oscillation’ on SAA flight
What followed was pitch oscillation. This is when an aircraft starts moving up and down repeatedly – like an intense see-saw motion in the air.
This was caused by the co-pilot switching off the autopilot and trying to correct the aircraft manually during the turbulence.
It led to repeated nose-up, nose-down movements instead of a smooth recovery.
Furthermore, the aircraft briefly sped beyond its maximum safe speed and then slowed toward its minimum safe speed while its altitude fluctuated by more than 700 feet.
The investigation found that during the incident, the SAA plane experienced zero-gravity conditions. These are moments where weightlessness occurs, which is “likely” when cabin crew were thrown upwards.
Hot drinks spilled, food trolleys toppled, and cabin crew members hit the ceiling and hard surfaces.
Amazingly, none of the 211 passengers were injured.
The captain’s testimony
The co-pilot said she feared using the speedbrakes would make the situation worse.
The captain, meanwhile, admitted he knew autopilot had been turned off. He didn’t intervene because he believed the situation was under control.
Airbus later ran a computer simulation, which showed that if autopilot had been left on and speedbrakes deployed, the SAA plane would have recovered more smoothly and stayed within safe speed limits.
After the scare, the pilots descended to 39 000 feet. This was in order to increase the speed margins and escape the unstable air.
