Qantas A380 gets rare jolt

SYDNEY: Australia´s Qantas Airways Ltd said on Thursday one of its Airbus SE A380 jets had experienced a rare "jolt" from wake turbulence after flying 20 nautical miles behind another one of its super-jumbos this week.

Wake turbulence is a disturbance in the atmosphere that forms behind an aircraft as it passes through the air, and air traffic control requires more spacing behind larger jets like the A380 in an attempt to avoid the phenomenon. Wake turbulence incidents are uncommon and typically involve a larger jet and a smaller aircraft rather than two super-jumbos.

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which handled air traffic control during the Qantas incident, does not specify a minimum distance of separation between two A380s during flight due to wake turbulence risks.

It specifies that Boeing 747s require 4.5 nautical miles of separation and smaller jets up to 8 nautical miles.

No passengers were injured and there was no aircraft damage from the incident which involved an A380 flying from Los Angeles to Melbourne behind another Qantas A380 flying from Los Angeles to Sydney, a Qantas spokesman said.

"The trailing airplane, the Qantas 94 encountered some wake turbulence from the Qantas 12, and that caused a jolt to the airplane for a short period of time," Qantas Chief Technical Pilot Alex Passerini told a Sydney radio station.

"The airplane climbed maybe 100 feet or so and descended back to its cruising altitude, and the captain took action to avoid the further exposure to the wake vortex."