Fully agreed. Also, it wasn’t seven seconds of free-fall; it was a big plummet, then probably some sort of slow deceleration, and then a stiffer recovery after a few seconds.
Really, it’s pretty cool that planes can shudder and shake like this and everyone still arrives ok.
The late-20th-century trope of air travel being the “safest way to travel” was already outdated by the time global warming started literally burning down our houses. The airlines’ recent turn as enthusiastic COVID deniers should been the definitive end of their branding as “safe.”
But the trope persists, because it’s not news when they emit another gigaton of carbon this year, or when they host a few hundred thousand superspreader events today and every day. Instead, the stop-the-presses moment is when they injure five (5) people.
Clear air turbulence, the radar cannot detect it, the pilots cannot see it and suddenly the plane drops 100 feet instantly. If it catches you walking on the aisle you will hit the ceiling and down to the floor, and pray there is no drinks trolley around. That’s why they tell you to always have the seat belt on
I used to fly a lot and I had a few rough ones, usually crossing the equator in Africa at night is a lively one due to storms, also going over the Andes
I always keep mine on, the only time i’ll be a rebel about it is once the plane has touched down i’ll undo it. They usually make you wait until its stopped taxing and i’m too impatient 
I do as well. To me, it’s just like keeping your seatbelt on in a car. I don’t see a reason to unbuckle it unless I have to use the WC…
I’ve been on a flight where one of the overhead bins opened during takeoff, then there was turbulence and a small hardcase fell out. It flew up and hit the ceiling so hard it cracked and one of the wheels fell off. Imagine if that had been a person? I was immensely glad it didn’t hit anyone. That was during light turbulence.
I have noticed a post elsewhere on the Hawaiian Airlines story, that headline also put “severe turbulence” or “turbulence” in quotes. Forgive my ignorance.
Is it put in quotes to suggest that something else was the cause?
Is “turbulence” not established as a phenomenon that may be unpreventable other than not to fly?
Isn’t turbulence related to climate conditions (and it may get even worse in the future)? Or is this phrase in quotes because it is believed to be the result of the airlines taking shortcuts and blaming the weather?
Ahh. That flew way over my head.
I mean, at first it was calmly flying WAY over my head, and then it plummeted several thousand feet and ended up just over my head before stabilizing again.
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