Comments to be attributed to  Qantas Fleet Safety Captain Debbie Slade

We understand that any sudden turbulence can be a jolt for passengers but aircraft are designed to handle it safely.

As the Captain explained to passengers at the time, this A380 experienced a short burst of wake turbulence from another A380 flying ahead and above it.

There are a lot of safeguards in place to reduce the likelihood of wake turbulence encounters, but it’s hard to eliminate.

Unexpected turbulence is why we always recommend passengers keep their seat belt firmly fastened at all times just as pilots do in the flight deck.

Additional information 

The aircraft were 20 nautical miles apart in distance and 1000 feet in altitude.

The wake turbulence was due to another A380 above and ahead of the QF94, operating the QF 12 to Sydney.

Read some facts about turbulence and how we manage it on our blog here.