Travel dramas: Why are we seeing more 'extreme turbulence' and planes being turned around?

In recent months, stories of extreme turbulence have come to dominate travel headlines.

A flight between Spain and Uruguay this week had to be diverted to Brazil after dozens were injured due to turbulence in just the latest incident. In one case in April, a man onboard an Air New Zealand flight from Bali broke his leg, while in May, a violent Singapore Airlines flight saw dozens hospitalised and one passenger die.  

On top of this, we’re also seeing multiple stories of domestic flights where planes have had issues landing, and local and international flights getting turned around midway through their journeys due to technical issues.

So why are more flights seeing extreme turbulence, should we be concerned by flights turning around, and what are your rights as a passenger if flights go wrong? 

Today on The Front Page, chief executive of Massey University’s School of Aviation, Ashok Podavul, talks about the technical side of what happens when things go wrong, and later, Consumer NZ's Jessica Walker discusses 

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