Is it dangerous for planes to fly through thunderstorms?

Question

My friends are coming back from Europe today, and there's a big thunder/lightning storm outside!

Is it dangerous for planes to fly through thunderstorms?

Answer 1

I'm a pilot.  I will never fly through a thunderstorm, nor near enough to one to put the flight in jeopardy.  I will fly over one, or divert around one, and will absolutely divert to another airport if there is one within 10 miles of my intended landing.

As to whether it is dangerous, I believe they defintely are.

Answer 2

Planes will not fly THROUGH thunderstorms.  They will either fly OVER or AROUND them.  If a storm is directly over an airport, the planes will circle in a safe area waiting for the storm to pass, or, worst case, divert to another nearby airport.

So yes, it can be dangerous for planes to fly through thunderstorms, but they don't do it.

Answer 3

Short answer to your actual question: yes. Operative word: "through".

Answer 4

I like "coffeebuzzes" answer.

I was on an Air Canada 747 flight that dove through a severe thunderstorm to make Toronto one night. We had all assumed that we were crashing and the cabin was full of screaming passengers. We did not land so much as impact the runway. I counted three hard bounces. To this day my wife will not fly.  

Conditions on the ground were so bad that we could not gate for one and a half hours. And not one flight landed after we did. All other flights had diverted to alternate airports. I had always presumed that these guys didn't fly through thunderstorms. I stand corrected. And the reason I stand is because I fill my shorts every time I'm reminded of it.

I have been in three bad car accidents and I would rather repeat them over again than go through what we experienced that night.

Answer 5

Yes it is. Air traffic control will route them around one if at all possible. Lightening can interfere with electronics on board. The passengers are safe because the plane isn't earth grounded. Landing in a thunderstorm is very dangerous, since downdrafts occur frequently during t-storms, causing planes to crash.

Answer 6

All thunderstorms are considered dangerous to all airplanes.  The atmospheric forces involved can be tremendous.  All pilots are trained from day one to avoid thunderstorms under all circumstances.

People who claim to be pilots but give offhanded answers about matters like this are not actually pilots.  The answer is absolutely, they are dangerous, and you divert around them.  Very few airplanes are able to fly over a thunderstorm.

As for waiting for your friends, the worst that can happen is a short delay.  ATC will divert them around the storm, and thunderstorms move pretty fast, so it will get out of the way shortly, and your friends can come on in.

Answer 7

Most Pilots like to avoid them

Answer 8

Yes it is.  Aircraft try to always fly around them.  Keep in mind though that thunderstorms are sometimes isolated.  So, while there may be thunder/lightning outside your house, the airport could be clear enough for airplanes to land.  This is especially true if you live in an area like Texas or Florida.

Rest assured, your friends are safe.

Answer 9

Yeah, it is.  So, we use the radar and go around them.  By the time your friend gets home, the storm will be over.  If it's not, they will wait until it is, or divert to another airport.  Don't worry about it.

Answer 10

An airplane will never ever fly through a thunderstorm on purpose.

The lightning inside a thunderstorm is not the factor that makes this a general rule in aviation.

Basically a thunderstorms consists of constant updrafts and downdrafts, and the borderline between these create wind shear.

If you flew a small airplane through a severe thunderstorm it would basically be thrown around to a so large degree that it would fall apart.

Another important factor about thunderstorms are hail. Basically if an airplane gets subject to large hail when inside a thunderstorm it could severely damage the airplane, dent the wings of the airplane and destroying the wing design that makes the airplane able to fly.

For general aviation small aircraft the rule of thumb is to stay an actual 20 nautical miles away from a severe thunderstorm just because the extreme air shifting inside a thunderstorm can be felt many many miles from it, so just imagine being inside it.

So basically you have to fly around it, especially a severe one, why not over it you say? Well, if you have a severe thunderstorm, it can actually have a vertical development of 40 000 + feet. Now all the big jet airliners have a cruising altitude of less than 40 000 feet, so flying above it, even for the big jets is impossible, for a smaller aircraft it's not even tossed in as a thought.

Also, as others have mentioned, they are extremely hazardous to landing aircraft, they create wind shear which basically means that the airplane can be subject to sudden downdrafts and/or sudden changes in air flowing over the wings.

If you take into consideration that what makes an airplane fly is the air moving over the wings, if a 30 knot headwind shifts into a 30 knot tailwind, that airplane is now flying 60 knots slower than it was a few seconds ago, this then translates into the fact that the airplane may not have enough airspeed to keep itself in the air, and it might then stall, and fall towards the ground. If this happens in the landing phase of a flight the airplane is already slow and low, and the effect of this could/would be disastrous to everyone on board on on the ground.

So as a conclusion.

All airplanes, from the smallest to the largest, stay out of thunderstorms

edit:

Peter: it's 20nm not 25 :p

Answer 11

a little bit bc of visibility but not really that dangerous the pilot willl fly over the storm  

Answer 12

August 2, 1985, Delta Air Lines flight 191 crashed while on approach to the Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, killing 8 of 11 crew members and 126 of the 152 passengers on board and one person on the ground: a total of 135 deaths. This accident is one of the few commercial air crashes in which the meteorological phenomenon known as microburst.

They flew under a thunderstorm.

Answer 13

okay, first, aircraft will not intentionally fly into/through thunderstorms.

when you're on a commercial aircraft, and it seems like the airplane is inside a storm, rest assured, it is not. It is most likely going between two storm cells. Tstorms are isolated, usually small and they won't hang around for a long time. The plane may brush the thunderstorm formation, but it will not stay near it for any prolonged amount of time.

many aircraft have accidentally(or by incompetence) gone into micro thunderstorms during landing.

now, say that the plane needs to fly into and through the thunderstorm for x reason.

thunderstorms are dangerous to airplanes.

However, there is a distinction. It is not because of the lightning that makes it dangerous. Aircraft are not physically in contact with the ground and are all equipped with lightning dissipating equipment. All radios and flight computers are protected against lightning strikes also. (commercial airplanes anyways)

what makes thunderstorms dangerous is the severe, sudden downdrafts that appear from nowhere (microbursts). The turbulent air found in Tstorms can also create structural stresses but most of the time, they just make the crew and passengers anxious. Also, mainly for smaller aircraft, icing conditions are also present in thunderstorms. For a large aircraft, the impact is not too bad, for smaller aircraft, the consequences are disastrous. The wing can lose it's lift producing shape, or the aircraft can gain to much weight in ice that it simply cannot keep flying.

Answer 14

Yes, it is dangerous to fly airplanes through thunderstorms. So pilots will usually avoid them. (somehow the personification of the airplane bugs me.)

The FAA likes pilots to stay 25 miles from any severe thunderstorm.

Thunderstorms contain the following hazards

Updrafts and Downdrafts,

Microbursts

Lightning

Hail (the kind of ice that smashes things)

Ice (the kind that sticks to the wings.)

Very heavy rain

High winds

Tornadoes

None of these things is much good for flying in.

Likely worst case scenario is that the flight is diverted, or it may be delayed in some other way.