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Monday, August 18, 2008

Aussie routes among world's turbulence hotspots

SOURCE: Travel Advice by news.com.au
SOME of the most popular flight paths used by Australians have been named by experts as being among the world's most turbulent air routes.
Atmospheric researchers say the routes from Melbourne to Christchurch and Sydney to Los Angeles were notorious for the amount of turbulence frequently experienced by airlines.
University of Melbourne turbulence expert Todd Lane said any plane that flies over a mountainous region - which wreaks havoc with air flow - was more likely to have a "bumpy ride".
Dr Lane said the final stretch of the flight from Melbourne to Christchurch usually experienced turbulence due to the mountains surrounding the New Zealand city.
Flying over the Himalayas - as many flights from Australia to Europe do - was also a "common source" of turbulent activity, according to Dr Lane.
And trans-Atlantic flights during winter were notoriously bumpy.
"There's almost twice as much turbulence experienced in the winter months than in summer ... over Greenland," he said.
Pacific flights not so peaceful
Frequent storm activity over the Pacific Ocean has also [image: turbulance in australia, australia travel advice, travel advice, australian immigration information, australian visa assistance]caused problems for pilots.
"The Pacific route between Australia and the US is another (hotspot for turbulence)... that occurs almost all year round," Dr Lane said.
If anyone wanted to fly around the US during summer, they should do it in the morning, Dr Lane said.
"The US is terrible in the (northern) summertime because of storms.
"I'd always try to fly in the mornings ... storms predominately occur in the afternoons (in the US)."
But he said flying through turbulence was smoother on heavier planes.
No flight immune from turbulence
One of the world's foremost experts on turbulence, Larry [image: turbulance in australia, australia travel advice, travel advice, australian immigration information, australian visa assistance]Cornman from the US National Centre for Atmospheric Research, said no flight was immune to the phenomenon.
"If we knew where and when turbulence would occur ... we'd be out of work," Dr Cornman said.
"Nevertheless, we can make some general statements based on climatologies of aircraft encounters.
"Most commercial aircraft have on-board weather radars, so they typically avoid the 'main' parts of the thunderstorm; however, turbulence can occur in regions where the radar is not seeing much, but where there is visible cloud.
"Turbulence can also occur in the clear air on the sides and above rising thunderstorms ... (and this) seems to be a source of some very severe encounters - especially at night, when the pilot does not have any visual clues."
Danger of turbulence-related injures
More than 150 injuries caused by turbulence on [image: turbulance in australia, australia travel advice, travel advice, australian immigration information, australian visa assistance]Australian flights have been recorded in the last decade, according to the latest figures from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB).
"About a dozen in-flight turbulence injuries are reported in Australia each year to the ATSB, and many more go unreported," an ATSB report said.
"Some of these injuries are serious, and have resulted in broken bones and head injuries.
The ATSB described one incident that resulted in broken bones to passengers:
"In 2000, a Boeing 747 encountered clear air turbulence en route from Sydney to Osaka, Japan.
"When the (turbulence) struck, the seat-belt sign was not illuminated and people were moving about the cabin.
"During the turbulence two passengers sustained broken ankles… both of those passengers had been out of their seats during the turbulence."
Posted by gemini at 3:55 AM0 commentsLinks to this post[image: icon18_edit_allbkg.gif] Labels: Travel Advice

Sunday, July 20, 2008

300,000 skilled workers needed

SOURCE:News.com.au
[image: australian visa assistance, australia visa requirement, australia immigration information, work in australia, immigration to australia]AUSTRALIA'S economy cannot continue to grow without a lot more skilled migrant workers, Immigration Minister Chris Evans says.
Senator Evans warned today of an ageing population and a range of industries that could not find enough skilled workers to enable their businesses to grow.
"So there is a huge demand. We will meet it by upskilling our own people, but we have got to make sure we have got strong skilled migration as well if we are going to grow," the senator told Sky news.
"We will be investing an awful lot in the education revolution and skilling our own people.
"But the reality is we have an ageing population. Unless we have migration we are not going to be able to grow our workforce."
Under a revised immigration program announced this week, Australia will substantially lift its intake of migrants, particularly those with necessary skills.
That includes 190,300 in the permanent migration stream, 56,500 in the family stream and about 50,000 in the temporary skilled migration program - totalling more than 300,000.
This is the biggest yearly increase since the immigration program was launched in the 1940s.
Senator Evans said for the first time in the past year the workforce grew more from imported labour than from Australians taking new jobs.
"So we have got to have skilled migration to grow the economy. At the moment there is a real constraint on our capacity to grow because we just don't have enough workers," he said.
Senator Evans said there were significant skilled vacancies in the growth states, and there was a challenge to better connect those coming into Australia with areas where there were jobs.
"We don't want them all flocking into Sydney," he said.
"We actually want them going to Queensland, Western Australian and South Australia where there is huge demand for skills that they can't find elsewhere."
Opposition immigration spokesman Chris Ellison said the Government was continuing what the Coalition Government started.
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