DESCRIPTION:
Turbulence won't necessarily break the aircraft. It will hurt the people who aren't strapped in. The worst hit of my flying career came on a perfectly clear day on final approach into Johannesburg, with not a cloud in the sky, and it ended in a go-around.
This is the episode for anyone who is nervous about flying. I take you through what a Johannesburg summer thunderstorm looks like from the flight deck, what hail did to the nose of an aircraft I used to fly when it never even entered the storm, a flight where the weather radar showed nothing and a passenger died, and the one simple thing the investigators asked you, the passenger, to do about it.
Along the way: how pilots use the weather radar and the 20 mile rule to draw a line around a storm, why thermal turbulence over the Highveld is uncomfortable but not dangerous, why your Cape Town flight is late on a perfect day, what the final report on Singapore Airlines Flight 321 says about clear air turbulence and about the pilots, why some captains leave the seat belt sign on through smooth air and what that costs them, and how the wake from an A380 landing on the parallel runway reached across and hit a 50 seat regional jet on runway 03 Left.
IN THIS EPISODE:
The clear day hit: wake turbulence on final approach into O.R. Tambo and a go-around
Flying around Johannesburg summer storms: the weather radar, the 20 mile rule, TCAS and the aircraft ahead
Thermal turbulence, and what hail thrown out of the side of a storm did to the nose of an aircraft
What we train in the simulator: the decision to go around a storm, not the radar picture
Why your Cape Town flight is late on a perfect day, and the airline that still arrived on time 91 percent of the time in 2025
Clear air turbulence: Singapore Airlines Flight 321, the final report, and the one piece of advice for passengers
The seat belt sign: why it stays on, the cost of leaving it on too long, and the second pint
Table Mountain, mountain waves over George, wind shear, and how wake turbulence actually works
What you should do when the aircraft starts shaking
I'm Bryan Roseveare. I was an airline captain. I still go to work on the flight deck. It's just a full flight simulator now, and the pilots I train are the ones who fly you around.
MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE
The Go-Around video
→ https://youtu.be/tHNSBARtGtY
SOURCES
Transport Safety Investigation Bureau (Singapore), final report on the Singapore Airlines Flight 321 turbulence event of 21 May 2024, published 19 May 2026
→ https://isomer-user-content.by.gov.sg/287/7900f2d4-78dd-4325-adae-46c128857023/B773ER%20(9V-SWM)%20Turbulence%20event%20over%20Myanmar%2021%20May%202024.pdf
FAA Advisory Circular 00-24C, Thunderstorms
→ https://www.faa.gov/documentlibrary/media/advisory_circular/ac%2000-24c.pdf
FAA Aeronautical Information Manual, Chapter 7 Section 4, Wake Turbulence
→ https://www.faa.gov/Air_traffic/publications/atpubs/aim_html/chap7_section_4.html
Gijben, South African Journal of Science (2012), lightning flash density over South Africa
→ https://scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0038-23532012000200013
Cirium 2025 On-Time Performance Review
→ https://www.bizcommunity.com/article/cirium-reveals-2025-top-on-time-airlines-and-airports-172676a
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Support on Patreon
→ https://www.patreon.com/bryanair
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→ https://bryanairpodcast.com/
THANK YOU TO OUR PATREON SUPPORTERS
Thank you to the people who have been carrying the show, some of them for years:
Dale Williams
Duncan Gillespie
Franziska
Jaco
Mike Mason
Iain Findlay
Caroline Koll
ACE
Catharine
Alan Macaulay
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Imre Kurucz
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