Severe Weather Hazards (Essay Sample)

Student Institution Course Professor Date Thunderstorm brings flight to a violent end Summary Pilots are known to be intelligent, skilled, and knowledgeable people in the tasks that they do. However, in their line of duty, their success may be often determined by other external factors such as weather and mechanical factors. Weather-related plane crashes often happen despite the efforts of weather analysis and prediction by the weather department. The article Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) gives a case of a thunderstorm-related plane crash that happened on June 25, 2006, involving a Piper PA-34 Seneca plane crash in Tafton, Pennsylvania involved an impact of a thunderstorm. The plane had departed from Piedmont Triad International Airport in Greensboro, N.C., heading to Sanford Regional Airport in Sanford, Maine. As usual, normal weather forecasting and flight guidelines were given with all the support gadgets in place for the 1,700 instrument-rated pilots. The flight took like two hours from the take-off time without any weather challenges as communication with the Air Traffic Control was still on. The ATC informed the pilot of severe weather ahead of the position of the airplane and the pilot said that he had the weather radar gadgets in place (AOPA, 2008). This was the final call between the pilot and the ATC controller before losing the connectivity and at this point, the weather radar the sharp descent of the plane to an altitude of 5,300 feet in 40 seconds from 7000 feet altitude. An eyewitness reported that they had seen aircraft pieces falling from the sky which meant that the pilot had encountered a thunderstorm which led to the in-flight breakup. The cause of the crash of the thunderstorm is because of the strong wind shear contained in the thunderstorm, a large hail, and severe turbulence that destroys an aircraft upon encounter (AOPA, 2008). The dangers of encountering a thunderstorm cannot be depicted by the onboard weather depiction equipment which leaves a gap to be addressed. Moreover, weather radar images detect areas of precipitation which are updated every 5 minutes of depiction but not the turbulence of the thunderstorm. Limitations of Onboard Weather Equipment in Ensuring Pilot Safety The efforts made by the made by the Federal Aviation Administration in investing in technology and skilled personnel are being tested by unpredictable weather factors such as thunderstorms. Onboard weather display systems are essential safety tools for pilots, but it's important to acknowledge that they have limitations. The yoke-mounted GPS unit in an airplane receives updates of weather radar images in every five minutes. The interval of five minutes is a lot of time and great destruction may happen in the period, therefo...