2005-05 · NASA ASRS report 658095
CRJ FLT CREW AT FL320 RPTS ENCOUNTERING WAKE TURB FROM AN OPPOSITE DIRECTION B747-400 AT FL330.
WHILE LEVEL AT FL320; ON J107 S OF MLF; WE ENCOUNTERED MODERATE TURB CAUSED BY AN ACFT PASSING DIRECTLY OVERHEAD. THE RIDE PRIOR TO THE EVENT WAS SMOOTH. THE CONDITIONS AT FL320 WERE IMC; HOWEVER; THE SKY ABOVE WAS VISIBLE. TCAS INDICATED TFC AT OUR 12 O'CLOCK POSITION AT FL330 APCHING ON J9/J107; THE EXACT RECIPROCAL OF OUR COURSE. SLC ARTCC DID NOT IDENTIFY THE TFC. WE MONITORED THE TCAS AND ACQUIRED A VISUAL OF THE TFC AS IT PASSED OVERHEAD. TO OUR SURPRISE IT WAS A B747-400. WITHIN SECONDS OF THE PASS; WE ENCOUNTERED ITS WAKE AND EXPERIENCED AT LEAST MODERATE TURB FOR 1 TO 2 MINS IN DURATION. I NOTIFIED ATC OF THE EVENT; THE CTLR DID NOT SEEM CONCERNED. PRIOR TO THE ENCOUNTER; THE FLT ATTENDANT WAS CONDUCTING HER CABIN SVC AND THE SEAT BELT SIGN WAS OFF. FORTUNATELY; THE FLT ATTENDANT AND PAX SURVIVED THE UNEXPECTED ROUGH RIDE WITH JUST A FEW SPILLED DRINKS. IN TRAIL OF THE B747 WAS ANOTHER B747-400 AT FL330. WE DEVIATED E OF COURSE AND AVOIDED PERHAPS A SIMILAR EXPERIENCE. WE REQUESTED THE TYPE OF ACFT APCHING BEFORE ATC RPTED THAT TFC. I UNDERSTAND THAT IT IS MY RESPONSIBILITY; ULTIMATELY; TO SEE AND AVOID OTHER TFC WHEN PRACTICAL; THAT I COULD HAVE REQUESTED A TFC RPT FROM ATC. HOWEVER; WITH RVSM IN PRACTICE; ATC SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO RPT A POSSIBLE WAKE ENCOUNTER SO PLTS CAN ALERT THE CABIN OCCUPANTS AND DEVIATE AS NECESSARY TO AVOID THE WAKE. WE WERE VERY LUCKY THAT ALL PAX AND CREW WERE UNHARMED.
More incidents for this aircraft family
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
Loading the flight search…
Pick an aircraft model — Boeing 737, Airbus A320, A380, Boeing 787 Dreamliner and more — enter your origin airport, and FlightFinder shows every route that plane flies from there with live fares.
We support Boeing 737/747/757/767/777/787, the full Airbus A220/A319/A320/A321/A330/A340/A350/A380 family, Embraer E170/E175/E190/E195, Bombardier CRJ and Dash 8, and the ATR 42/72 turboprops.
Search and schedules are free. Pro ($4.99/month, $39/year, or $99 one-time lifetime) unlocks the enriched flight card — on-time stats, CO₂ per passenger, amenities, live gate & weather — plus My Trips with push alerts.
Live schedules come from Amadeus, AeroDataBox and Travelpayouts. Observed routes (which aircraft actually flew a given city pair) are crowdsourced from adsb.lol ADS-B data under the Open Database License.