There’s perhaps nothing more unnerving than flying through the air at 35,000 feet and hitting turbulence so bad that your stomach drops and your heart leaps into your throat. Although severe turbulence has triggered or caused heart attacks, spine injuries, and (in very rare cases) fatalities in the past, the experts we talked to said those situations are incredibly uncommon. Not to mention, airplanes are built to withstand these mid-flight jump scares, which are, in most cases, completely harmless.
Turbulence happens when a bunch of air currents whirl in different directions for a variety of reasons, like temperature changes or thunderstorms. And luckily there’s a lot you can do to reduce panicky feelings and avoid getting hurt if your plane does ever shimmy too much for comfort.
Here are some common mistakes people make during airplane turbulence, and what to do instead.
You may feel an urge to get up and move around when more serious turbulence hits your plane, but resist that instinctive fight-or-flight response, experts say. Standing is the most dangerous thing you can do during turbulence because you’re more likely to fall down or into hard objects like a food cart—no matter how strong or fit you think you are, Stuart Fischer, MD, FAAOS, an orthopedic surgeon in Watchung, New Jersey, tells SELF. “How well you’re conditioned really won’t make a difference because turbulence is sudden,” he says. “Think of it this way: You can still fracture your wrist if you slip on ice in the middle of a winter storm even if you’re an Olympic athlete.”
So next time you’re walking back to your seat or stretching in the aisle when turbulence strikes, immediately sit down on the floor and hold onto an armrest, Kyle Koukol, a commercial pilot who founded a service called Dial a Pilot, which helps quell flyers’ travel anxieties by connecting them with aviation experts via phone calls. Otherwise, you risk being catapulted upward and banging your head on the cabin ceiling.
If you’re in your seat, make sure your hips and pelvis are aligned with your knees as your feet stay planted on the ground, says Leo Arguelles, PT, DPT, spokesperson for the American Physical Therapy Association. “Dispersing your weight between your pelvis and feet can take the pressure off your back and make it easier to stay upright for longer,” Arguelles tells SELF. If you’re slouching over, your head is closer to the seat in front of you and more likely to hit it.
(Flyer’s tip: If you really want to be proactive, choose a seat in the center of the plane by the wings. That’s where the center of gravity is, so you won’t feel it as much, Dr. Fischer says.)
This should go without saying, but there’s a reason flight staff tell you to keep your seatbelt fastened as often as possible, even if the sign is off. Most of the wild turbulence-related injuries you’ve heard about in the news happen when people aren’t strapped in.
“Unexpected turbulence can happen,” Koukol says. “Your seatbelt doesn’t have to be cinched all the way down, but it should at least be clipped so if turbulence does occur, you can tighten it really quick.”
If you happen to be using the restroom when turbulence hits, experts recommend you stay in there, finish up, and sit on the toilet until it subsides (even if it gets a little, uh, messy). It may be nerve-wracking to not know what’s going on outside, but Koukol says that “staying seated is the best thing you can possibly do” for all the reasons we mentioned above. Only when things have calmed down should you head back to your seat, sit, and strap in.
It’s extremely unlikely that turbulence will lead to an emergency water landing or something else dramatic, so there’s no need to panic and rummage for your belongings in the overhead bins. (Even if something major happens, you’ll need to leave all of your items behind anyway.) So just stay seated. Opening those bins could cause heavy bags to fall on your head, or someone else’s.
Any time you settle into your seat, Dr. Fischer says you should put away loose objects that could fly around during turbulence, especially children’s toys that aren’t being played with. And if you need to grab anything overhead during your flight, don’t forget to firmly close the bins when you’re done.
As annoying as it is (especially if you’re in the middle of sipping a drink), there’s a reason flight attendants ask you to close your tray table for landing. In the event your descent is a little rocky, your face, chest, or abdomen can slam into your tray, Dr. Fischer says. The same thing can happen during turbulence.
You’ll also want to close your tray to keep objects from launching into the air and hitting you. The biggest concern in this scenario, Koukol says, is hot coffee or tea spilling on your lap.
Because turbulence is often unexpected, try to avoid laying on top of your tray for a quick (albeit uncomfortable!) nap, if possible, Dr. Fischer says. Any kind of wobble, small or large, may slide your head into the seat in front of you, potentially hurting your head or neck. If you absolutely need the tray table to read or look at a laptop screen, avoid leaning forward for a clearer look, Arguelles says; doing so can strain your neck. And if you need reading glasses, it’s a good idea to put them on so you can see without putting your face too close to the seat or tray table, which can increase the chances you bump your head during turbulence.
Most importantly, try to stay calm. If you’re picturing horrible scenarios in your head, remember that air travel is extremely safe. More than 2.9 million people fly in the US every day, but only 163 were seriously injured by turbulence between 2009 and 2022, according to the Federal Aviation Administration—about one injury per month over 13 years.
If you feel yourself spiraling, try some deep breathing exercises, which can trigger your parasympathetic nervous system (that rest-and-digest system that counters your fight-or-flight response) and help you relax.
“Although all these stories in the news are quite scary, especially when people are injured, it’s pretty amazing how many millions of flights go off without a hitch,” Koukol says. “With all of the different tools we have to both forecast and identify turbulence, we’ve reached a phenomenally safe era in commercial aviation.”
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