Why don t pilots fly over the Pacific?

Hazardous weather conditions and larger weather systems can occur over bodies of water. These include thunderstorms, which are extremely hazardous to flights.



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Most flights are intended to spend as little time as possible over water, since storms are more common over the ocean than on land. An aircraft would not be safe to fly over the Pacific Ocean due to the stormy weather and frequent lightning strikes that occur there.

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A transpacific flight is the flight of an aircraft across the Pacific Ocean from Australasia, East and Southeast Asia to North America, Latin America, or vice versa. Such flights have been made by fixed-wing aircraft, balloons and other types of aircraft.

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Weather and jet streams Further to the safety concerns, weather over the Pacific Ocean is actually quite unpredictable (per Executive Flyers). There are many thunderstorms that occur over the ocean which can lead to turbulence.

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It's rare for short-haul flights to Europe to suffer more than a short stretch of light turbulence. Meteorologists inform pilots in advance of bad weather, allowing planes to re-route and avoid the worst. Passengers can get their own predictions on websites such as turbli.com.

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Routes with the Most Turbulence
  • New York to London.
  • Seoul to Dallas.
  • Flying into certain airports near the equator. There are certain airports which are located close to the equator which means frequent thunderstorms, especially in certain seasons. ...
  • Flying into Reno, Nevada. ...
  • London to South Africa.


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Thanks to the low visibility and undeveloped infrastructure, flying over Antarctica is extremely difficult. Specifically, because of the strong magnetic fields that surround the polar regions, navigating there, no matter how well-equipped the airplane is in terms of instrumentation, can be particularly challenging.

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What is the longest flight in the world by distance? The longest flight in the world by distance is New York (JFK) to Singapore (SIN) on Singapore Airlines clocking in at 9,537 miles. What plane can fly the farthest in the world?

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Because of its vast size, crossing the Pacific Ocean requires a staggering quantity of fuel. However, most commercial aircraft do not fly directly over the Pacific Ocean; instead, they choose what are known as 'curved paths'. These paths offers a faster, more efficient route given the curved nature of the earth.

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Has a plane ever ditched in the ocean? 23 November 1996: Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 (a Boeing 767-260ER), ditched in the Indian Ocean near Comoros after being hijacked and running out of fuel, killing 125 of the 175 passengers and crew on board.

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Despite what many people believe, the answer actually has nothing to do with safety. The real answer is because going north may actually provide a shorter route. This is called Great Circle Navigation. Because of the curvature of the Earth, the shortest route between two locations may appear much longer on a flat map.

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Altitude and emergency descent The leading reason for aircraft avoiding the region is the high average height of the terrain.

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The US prohibits flights across all North Korean airspace, including the oceanic part of the ZKKP/Pyongyang FIR over the Sea of Japan. Several other countries have airspace warnings in place which advise caution due to the risk posed by unannounced rocket launches.

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The longest over water route in the world is the stretch between the U.S. mainland and Hawaii. Even between Hawaii and Tokyo there are alternate airports available, such as Midway Island (hence the name “Midway”). Going across the North Atlantic, alternates include Iceland and Greenland.

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Overwater flights are dispatched with ETOPS requirements in mind to ensure that a diversion airport is always within reach, assuming that the engine failure or shut down doesn't lead to other problems with the aircraft.

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There is less turbulence over water than over land, because the primary cause of turbulence is hot air rising from the ground. Water distributes heat a lot better than soil, making flights over the ocean much smoother.

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While no aircraft can avoid turbulence, passengers may feel less turbulence in widebody aircrafts, as they're larger and heavier airplanes.

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