What the profile screens for
A combination of acceleration, attitude, speed, altitude, and control changes indicates a significant turbulence encounter.
Why it matters
Turbulence can cause occupant injury, structural loads, altitude deviation, and temporary loss of control.
Build the event around relationships—not one number.
Define the operating context
Identify the climb / cruise / descent state, aircraft configuration, location, and any required external data before applying logic.
Screen the signal relationship
Use validated combinations of normal acceleration, vertical speed, attitude; avoid treating one isolated value as the whole event.
Confirm it is a genuine event
Check polarity, units, source, recording rate, dropouts, air/ground logic, persistence, and false-positive mechanisms.
Connect data to the safety question
Review procedures, reports, weather, airport and traffic context, exposure, recurrence, and the strength of the related barriers.
Recorded signals that may help explain the event.
Normal acceleration
Acceleration measured broadly along the aircraft's vertical body axis; its touchdown peak can help characterize a landing load when interpreted with other signals.
Open parameter guide ↗ft/min or m/sVertical speed
The aircraft's vertical rate. Different recorded sources and smoothing can produce materially different values, especially during flare and touchdown.
Open parameter guide ↗ktCalibrated airspeed
Indicated airspeed corrected for instrument and position error, as provided by the aircraft data system.
Open parameter guide ↗degPitch attitude
Aircraft body attitude above or below the local horizontal reference.
Open parameter guide ↗degRoll angle
Aircraft bank attitude about the longitudinal axis.
Open parameter guide ↗Questions before conclusions
- Q1
Are normal acceleration, vertical speed, attitude valid, correctly decoded, time-aligned, and sampled well enough for this event?
- Q2
What changed immediately before, during, and after the severe turbulence encounter candidate indication?
- Q3
How do aircraft configuration, weather, airport geometry, automation state, and crew reports change the interpretation?
- Q4
Which current flight manual, SOP, maintenance, or operator event definition controls the final conclusion?
Safety topics that broaden the event review.
Turbulence risk
Forecasting, detection, communication, speed, altitude, occupant protection, and post-event review for convective, clear-air, mountain-wave, and wake turbulence.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-084 · Cabin, cargo & dangerous goodsTurbulence injury prevention
Forecast use, communication, seatbelt management, cabin securing, crew exposure, service decisions, and learning from turbulence injuries.
Open topic profile ↗SAT-085 · Cabin, cargo & dangerous goodsSeatbelt compliance
Passenger and crew restraint use, signaling, announcements, enforcement, turbulence response, and the limits of warning alone.
Open topic profile ↗Windshear and Microburst
Recognize rapid changes in wind vector and the resulting airspeed, path, thrust, and vertical-energy effects close to the ground.
Open topic brief ↗Aircraft SystemsFlight-Deck Automation
Use mode awareness, active monitoring, and aircraft-response verification to keep automation aligned with crew intent.
Open topic brief ↗Human FactorsHuman Factors and Fatigue
Study how workload, fatigue, expectation, communication, interface design, and organizational conditions shape performance.
Open topic brief ↗12 useful starting points
Terminology and topic relationships select these links; the publisher source remains authoritative.
Managing Severe Turbulence
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for weather. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceAnnual Safety Review 2025
EASA's review uses occurrence and accident information to describe performance across aviation domains and to support the European safety-risk-management process.
Open official sourceSafety Management Manual (Doc 9859), Fourth Edition
ICAO's fourth-edition manual explains how safety data, risk management, assurance, culture, and governance work together in State and service-provider safety management.
Open official sourceGo-Around Decision-Making and Execution Project — Final Report
The Flight Safety Foundation project examines go-around policy compliance, decision biases, operational pressures, and the risks that also need to be managed during go-around execution.
Open official sourceSAFO 14002 — SAFO 14002, Global Positioning System ( GPS )/Global Navigation Satellite System ( GNSS ) Navigator/Autopilot Compatibility
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and navigation and surveillance. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 09014 — Concepts for Fatigue Countermeasures in Part 121 and 135 Short-Haul Operations
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 08005 — Preflight of helicopter hydraulic systems to include validation of control movement smoothness and identification of adverse flight control “stick-jump.”
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and airworthiness and systems. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 08015 — Preflight check of helicopter hydraulic systems to include validation of control movement smoothness and identification of adverse flight control “stick-jump”
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and airworthiness and systems. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 06004 — Approach and landing accident reduction: Sterile cockpit, fatigue
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for approach and landing and human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 06017 — Equipment Training and Checking for Helicopter Operators on the SPZ-7000 or SPZ-7600 Dual Digital Automatic Flight Control Systems
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation and human factors. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceSAFO 05002 — Multiple full deflection, alternating flight control inputs
Official U.S. Federal Aviation Administration material indexed for flight controls and automation. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official sourceA380 Development of the Flight Controls
Official Airbus Safety First material indexed for aviation safety. Open the publisher source for the complete document, scope, and current status.
Open official source