Impact of Weather in Aviation

Convective weather activity and its impact on aviation operations.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDfodeURad0

According to the NOAA (2020), Delta Airlines Flight 191 crashed on August 2, 1985. A surface map on the morning of the flight depicted a cold front extending from the East and down to Texas. A few hours before the crash, thunderstorms developed, and eventually, the crew aboard Flight 191 could visually see convective activity near their destination airport. The radar showed two distinct cells with strong intensities north of the runway where Flight 191 was supposed to land. Wind shear from the microburst caused the aircraft to hit the ground short of the runway while it was on final approach.

A temperature contrast and scattered precipitation observed on the day of the crash contributed greatly to the conditions for a microburst and "the daytime heating and enhanced moisture convergence along the front likely resulted in sufficient instability for a rather impressive satellite presentation of deep moist convection" (NOAA, 2020). "Based on information from the flight data recorder, it would appear that Delta Air Lines Flight 191 likely traversed a region in which rain, lightning, and very turbulent winds were occurring. A moment later, the DFW International Airport observer reported a thunderstorm to the north and northeast of their location" (NOAA, 2020). These weather conditions accompanied by the aircraft's lack of warning systems resulted in this crash.

References

NOAA. (2020, October 2). Delta Flight 191 incident at DFW Airport. National Weather Service. https://www.weather.gov/fwd/delta191

Smithsonian. (2014, April 8). This is why you don't want to fly into a microburst. YouTube. https://youtu.be/HDfodeURad0