Many might feel scared to fly following recent incidents of severe turbulence, including on an Air Europa flight Monday that injured 30 people, but experts have assured Newsweek larger planes can handle the extreme conditions.

The Spanish airline incident unfolded on a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft from Madrid, Spain, to Montevideo, Uruguay. The incident came not long after other reports of severe turbulence, such as on a Singapore Airlines flight that killed a passenger in May and a Qatar Airways flight that left 12 people injured in the same month.

As terrifying as the moments of turbulence are, larger aircraft—such as the ones involved in the recent incidents—are able to withstand more turbulence.

Former airline pilot Lenny Lee told Newsweek: "A larger, heavier airplane that's flying in a steady state will be harder for turbulence to shake, rattle and roll than a smaller, lighter airplane."

It's no surprise that many may get nervous about air travel, as clear-air turbulence (CAT) was found to have increased over the past 40 years, according to a June 2023 study published in Geophysical Research Letters.

The study found that the increases were largest over the U.S. and North Atlantic, both of which are busy flight regions.

According to the study, "severe-or-greater CAT increased the most, becoming 55 percent more frequent in 2020 than 1979" and CAT is "projected to intensify in response to future climate change."

Why Are Large Aircraft Able To Handle More Turbulence?

Lee explained: "It mostly has to do with mass. Think of it this way—a leaf is going to get blown around a lot more by the wind than a rock."

The former airline pilot noted that widebody, jumbo and superjumbo jets—such as the Airbus A380, the world's largest passenger aircraft—have "considerably more mass" than smaller jets like the Boeing 737, "which in turn has more mass than smaller regional turboprop like the Dash 8 Q400."

Regional turboprop planes also fly at lower altitudes, typically 25,000 feet or below, Lee said, "where they are more likely to encounter turbulence."

He added: "Their big brother and big sister jets can fly up to 40,000 and sometimes even higher giving them more room to find smoother air."

While heavier, larger planes handle "light turbulence" better than smaller planes, "it does not mean they encounter less turbulence," Dan Bubb, a professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas who is an aviation historian and former airline pilot, told Newsweek.

The professor said that "like smaller planes, they also encounter severe turbulence," noting different incidents throughout history where larger planes that have been impacted by heavy turbulence, including some resulting in fatalities.

Bubb said: "In 1985, a Delta Air Lines L-1011 widebodied jet crashed on approach to Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport after encountering a microburst from a severe thunderstorm. 123 people died in that crash. On November 12, 2001, an American Airlines Airbus A300 with 260 passengers on board crashed after encountering wake turbulence from another heavy jet that took off before it. Tragically, everyone on that plane died." The jet went down just after leaving John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York City.

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