Joe Biden’s Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, has claimed that the spate of recent Boeing incidents involving turbulence is due to “climate change.”
Appearing on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Buttigieg predicted that turbulence is something that will continue to “affect American travelers, whether here or abroad.”
“We’ve seen that in the form of everything from heat waves that shouldn’t statistically even be possible threatening to melt the cables of transit systems in the Pacific Northwest, to, as you mentioned, hurricane seasons becoming more and more extreme and indications that turbulence is up by about 15%,” he continued.
“That means assessing anything and everything that we can do about it.”
CNBC reported:
A study published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters last year found that there have been increases in clear-air turbulence (CAT) between 1979 and 2020, with “severe-or-greater” turbulence – the strongest category of CAT – becoming 55% more frequent over the North Atlantic over the course of that time period.
“Our climate is evolving,” Buttigieg said.
“Our policies and our technology and our infrastructure have to evolve accordingly, too.”
Buttigieg’s remarks come after 12 people were injured after a Qatar Airways flight from Doha to Dublin was hit with turbulence.
Last week, a passenger died, and others were seriously injured on a Boeing flight from London to Singapore where it ran into freak turbulence.
The Boeing 777 plane, operated by Singapore Airlines, left the UK on Monday at 10.17 pm with 211 passengers and 18 crew on board.
Buttigieg added:
“Now, there are protocols and patterns for things like how pilots who encounter turbulence can notify those who might be coming in the path,” he said.
“But I do think we need to continually re-evaluate that in the face of the reality that these things are more frequent and more severe than before.”
Watch
On Friday, Boeing said it had seen a 500% increase in the number of employee submissions about quality and safety concerns in the first two months of 2024 compared to the same period a year ago.
The rise in submissions occurred after a section of an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 plane blew out midflight on January 5.
Buttigieg backed up that claim, saying it’s “encouraging” that aviation employees are fostering a culture of “if you see something, say something.”
“We want you to err on the side of reporting,” he said.
“The concerning part, of course, is that any of those issues are happening at all.”
