One of the few videos I’ve ever seen that actually captures a ‘wet’ microburst as it happens…
Video is HERE.
This stuff hits the ground at over 100 mph, coming straight down. I don’t remember the exact figures, but testing done in the simulator after the Dallas crash in 1985, HERE, some VERY small percentage of pilots were able to actually make a safe landing…
We encountered a microburst in flight at altitude once, and lost thousands of feet. That scared the crap out of everybody on the airplane, and we were all experienced aircrew.
This was one of the reasons there is now doppler radar at most if not all airports in the US that handle airline traffic.
That’s a wet one.
There are dry ones that are invisible, right?
They don’t video as well 🙂
Ed- That they are. You don’t know you’re in one until the VSI unspools… Sigh
Wow. That looked like a waterfall. I can see how that would be the end of a flight.
I learned well why you should always have your seatbelt on in the plane when a “puddle jumper” I was in hit some kind of air current and dropped for about half a second. In spite of a fastened seat belt, my head still bumped the overhead bin. No warning whatsoever.
Heh. As Flight Engineer on the C-5 Galaxy years ago, we took off from Dover AFB at night, no weather radar operational on the plane, nothing notable from the the tower. Shortly after takeoff, -1.5 G load, shook all aboard. -1 flight manuals had nothing, so we took it back for evaluation, unknown condition. We apparently hit a downburst, but were still at takeoff power, not low power in prep for landing, thank goodness. Downbursts are nothing to laugh at!
Circa 1969, Colorado Springs area, a sailplane pilot going for a distance Diamond went from around 10,000 ASL to 50′ AGL in seconds. Since he was so low and the terrain was suitable, he went ahead and landed. Clear air and over Western Kansas. None of the sailplane pilots could explain it.
JMI- Thankfully you weren’t on final when that happened.
WN- Yeah, military crews have some true horror stories..
WSF- CAT (Clear air turbulence) can extend over 100 miles from the backside of the Rockies… Lenticular roll will flat knock you down out there.
I was doing tows that day and didn’t notice any evidence of a mountain wave. He was paralleling the high ground from Raton, NM to Boise City, OK and that may have been the source of the CAT.
Wow, I can see how this could be fatal for an airplane,
Air crew and passengers
Rick- Not enough time to react, and not enough power to get out of it…