Video from inside A320 cabin as plane flies through severe thunderstorm.

Many pilots have thunderstorm stories. I have one and it put the fear of thunderstorms into me, permanently. Go around the storm or land and wait. You bet your life I wish I would have just landed and found a hotel room. It was severe clear the next day.
 
Yup - turbo thunder bronc STOL ride in W Africa - first time I knew lightning actually had some diameter 😳
 
I left Detroit in a pretty respectable early morning thunderstorm one time, one that we expected to be delayed. Once we boarded and they started to push back the pilot came on the intercom and said if we didn’t leave immediately we’d be delayed for potentially a few hours until weather improved. He said that it was going to be rough and he was taking off fast and steep to climb past it. The first 10 minutes were absolutely miserable but once we were above it it was a normal flight. That’s the only turbulence I’ve ever seen the overhead bins come open and stuff falling out. Much kudos to the pilot for letting us know beforehand that the takeoff was going to suck.
 
Watch the video. Pilot declared an emergency and had no choice but to land.
I watched it.

He had a choice - avoid the thunderstorm.

Once he hit it, yeah, then he had no choice.

He declared the emergency AFTER he flew through a thunderstorm.

The point is to avoid them in the first place. This wouldn’t be the first crew suckered in by a radar shadow, but it’s fundamentally a pilot error.
 
Aircraft weather radar is meant for avoiding severe weather, not trying to penetrate it.

Heavy rain can hide severe weather behind the radar image and make it seem as if it’s not dangerous when it could very well be.

 
For those of you not familiar with weather radar operation, here’s an article, or two, on shadowing.


 
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Many pilots have thunderstorm stories. I have one and it put the fear of thunderstorms into me, permanently. Go around the storm or land and wait. You bet your life I wish I would have just landed and found a hotel room. It was severe clear the next day.
It’s very interesting to watch different levels of experience/wisdom navigate thunderstorms in the enroute ATC environment, even from an airline standpoint. Some are willing to chance a hole, others have no interest regardless of what the previous aircraft do. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for some of these flight deck conversations. Dare I say I see way too many regional carriers who fly through stuff that the mainlines won’t get within 50 miles of.
 
I watched it.

He had a choice - avoid the thunderstorm.

Once he hit it, yeah, then he had no choice.

He declared the emergency AFTER he flew through a thunderstorm.

The point is to avoid them in the first place. This wouldn’t be the first crew suckered in by a radar shadow, but it’s fundamentally a pilot error.
There was nasty one of these incidents by a Delta A320 over Nebraska a few years back.
 
It’s very interesting to watch different levels of experience/wisdom navigate thunderstorms in the enroute ATC environment, even from an airline standpoint. Some are willing to chance a hole, others have no interest regardless of what the previous aircraft do. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for some of these flight deck conversations. Dare I say I see way too many regional carriers who fly through stuff that the mainlines won’t get within 50 miles of.
Good judgement is the result of experience and experience the result of bad judgement.
 
It’s very interesting to watch different levels of experience/wisdom navigate thunderstorms in the enroute ATC environment, even from an airline standpoint. Some are willing to chance a hole, others have no interest regardless of what the previous aircraft do. I’d love to be a fly on the wall for some of these flight deck conversations. Dare I say I see way too many regional carriers who fly through stuff that the mainlines won’t get within 50 miles of.
I see it all the time. When a “Brickyard“ or other RJ call sign takes a turn to avoid, I listen out of curiosity, but I’ve seen them make terrible decisions.

e.g. Big cell, clear rain shaft, ugly radar return* approaching the field in Orlando. As it gets near the approach end of our departure runway, Tower clears a Delta for takeoff.

They decline.

Tower then clears the American behind him.

They decline.

Tower then clears the Southwest behind American.

They decline.

Tower then clears us.

We decline.

Tower clears the Continental Express behind us.

They accept takeoff clearance, and back taxi down the runway to get in position.

As they do, a deep, anonymous voice says, “good luck…”

As they take off, the rain shaft has reached the end of the runway from which they’re rolling.

They roll for an unusually long distance, and climb at a very shallow, slow rate. They didn’t fess up to being hammered by a big tailwind from a microburst, but I’d bet my next paycheck that’s what happened.

Every experienced pilot looked at the approaching cell, saw the potential for a microburst and did the prudent thing by delaying the takeoff.

But the RJ guys were excited to taxi past the “big boys” and go.

Fools.

*The radar gradient can tell you a lot about a cell. When it’s steep, when it goes from green to yellow to red over a very short distance that cell is dangerous. It’s developing quickly and has a lot of updraft, which means it will soon have a lot of downdraft, often in the form of a microburst. Microbursts are often fatal. The clearly defined rain shaft speaks to a big downdraft inside a rapidly building cell. Not good.
 
Tower clears the Continental Express behind us.

They accept takeoff clearance, and back taxi down the runway to get in position.

As they do, a deep, anonymous voice says, “good luck…”
Takeoffs are always optional, everything that happens after the decision to takeoff is mandatory. I would rather be on the ground wishing I was flying than flying and wishing I was on the ground.
 
I see it all the time. When a “Brickyard“ or other RJ call sign takes a turn to avoid, I listen out of curiosity, but I’ve seen them make terrible decisions.

e.g. Big cell, clear rain shaft, ugly radar return* approaching the field in Orlando. As it gets near the approach end of our departure runway, Tower clears a Delta for takeoff.

They decline.

Tower then clears the American behind him.

They decline.

Tower then clears the Southwest behind American.

They decline.

Tower then clears us.

We decline.

Tower clears the Continental Express behind us.

They accept takeoff clearance, and back taxi down the runway to get in position.

As they do, a deep, anonymous voice says, “good luck…”

As they take off, the rain shaft has reached the end of the runway from which they’re rolling.

They roll for an unusually long distance, and climb at a very shallow, slow rate. They didn’t fess up to being hammered by a big tailwind from a microburst, but I’d bet my next paycheck that’s what happened.

Every experienced pilot looked at the approaching cell, saw the potential for a microburst and did the prudent thing by delaying the takeoff.

But the RJ guys were excited to taxi past the “big boys” and go.

Fools.

*The radar gradient can tell you a lot about a cell. When it’s steep, when it goes from green to yellow to red over a very short distance that cell is dangerous. It’s developing quickly and has a lot of updraft, which means it will soon have a lot of downdraft, often in the form of a microburst. Microbursts are often fatal. The clearly defined rain shaft speaks to a big downdraft inside a rapidly building cell. Not good.

Sounds analogous to trying to best a winter storm on a mountain pass with whatever tyres came on the car...
 
Orlando is the only airport I have seen a “ microburst advisory” on the ATIS.

Denver (DIA) has a very sophisticated microburst measuring and alerting system. I'm certain there are more, but those two, given their size and weather, should certainly have the system...
 
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