Thoughts on Turbulence Coverage in Media

[PhilDernerJr]

I put this on my Facebook page to get thoughts from non-aviation people, and was wondering what you folks thought as well.

Terrified passengers recall airliner's sudden, turbulent drop: http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/05/travel...html?hpt=hp_t2

POST YOUR REPLY BEFORE READING OTHERS' REPLIES! I want to get your raw, personal opinions. :)

[Landing Lights]

As usual, there is a good amount of sensationalism here. The media loves stories like this because they play into the lack of understanding that most people have about flying. This was amplified with MH370, where the media did an exemplary job of turning this lack of knowledge into ratings and page clicks. I have been through interviews like this with the media, and I have had to choose my words carefully to avoid falling into a trap. Passengers who just went through an atypical flight are not going to avoid these media traps, they're still too frightened by the experience. While this story had fewer holes in it than most of the mainstream media's aviation stories, it still is very sensationalist. By the passengers' own accounts, this whole incident lasted 5 seconds or less. It consisted of one sudden drop and that was it. To be brutally honest, this is hardly what I would call a significant event.

Adding to the hysteria, the reporters' knowledge about flying is generally about the same as the people they are interviewing. To use CNN as an example, I know for a fact that they have at least one reporter on staff that has strong aviation knowledge, yet they seem to choose others to report on aviation most of the time. Looking back at that particular reporter's archives for the past 2 months, I see 3 aviation related stories: One about the new Goodyear Blimp and two about MH370, both of which were more technical than most (and needed to be, IMHO, given the subject matter). By having (pardon the term) clueless reporters interviewing clueless passengers, the media attempts to avoid displaying any bias. However this comes at a cost: when neither party knows what they're talking about, the story becomes hysterical.

As a person who knows something about aviation and writes about it on a regular basis, I came away from watching and reading that story with a different question: what about the seatbelts? The turbulence struck as they were passing through 17,000 feet, and light turbulence had been reported in the area. I would be very surprised if the flight crew had turned off the seatbelt sign at that point in the flight, given the altitude and PIREPs. Heck, even in smooth air, I'm not sure that the seatbelt sign would necessarily be turned off by 17,000 feet. And I can't remember the last time that I flew when the flight crew didn't specifically tell us that our seatbelts should remain on at all times while we were in our seats.

[gonzalu]

I think it is ABSOLUTE DRAMATIZING for attention and scaring people into watching the news. Do you know how many much more terrible things happen every hour on US roads?

I think the airlines and the FAA should make many more public videos on what actually happens in a cockpit before, during and after a flight. With all the checkpoints, checklists, maintenance regulations, recording devices, required training, it is a miracle the planes can actually leave and arrive on time 99% of the time.

I AM SICK AND TIRED OF THE SCARE TACTICS BY THE MEDIA AND THE LACK OF KNOWLEDGE.

Sorry for yelling, it pisses me off.

One mroe thing, how the heck can CNN say with a straight face that LAX ATC computers didn't have enough memory to deal with the track a USAF U-2 Dragon Lady took over LAX? Seriously? My iPhone has 64GB of RAM, and an ATC computer needs more than that to track a plane? And no one chalenged that?

No no no, it is easier to make big drama on TV...

[NIKV69]

CNN has been a sinking ship for some time now. If it wasn't for MH370 nobody would be watching. Anything they can do to get viewers they will do. Also people in this hobby have watched the MSM under the impression they want to get the story right or be accurate. This is not the case nor will it ever be.

[gonzalu]

Well, on MH370, we basically won't know jack schmit until we know, you know? LOL

[rkfast]

"Scary stuff" "controversy" "racism" "sex"

This is what sells in the news media. Period. And the public eats it up.