Airlines are expressing a greater interest in IATA’s turbulence awareness program, a data collection system that helps pilots navigate tricky weather in real time, after last month’s Singapore Airlines incident that left one dead and scores injured.
Turbulence Aware was launched by IATA in 2018 to help airlines mitigate the impact of turbulence, the No. 1 cause of passenger and crew injuries in the air. The program currently has 21 airlines feeding data into the system, and IATA has a goal of collecting turbulence reports from 150 million flights by the end of 2024, said Nick Careen, who leads the airline body’s work on safety, security and operations.
"There are conversations with quite a few airlines. There’s been an increased interest,” Careen said. "More information and more data will definitely improve the situation.”