Turbulence

The disappearance of Air France Flight 447 was sad and scary news. It brings back memories of my experience with turbulence during my flight back from the US a few years ago. No one likes to be strapped to the chair while trying to eat or sleep. So my kids and I took off our seat belt although we were being advised a few times by the flight attendants. Then a really cheery but bossy lady attendant came and told us to put our seat belt on or we would hit our head to the “roof” of the plane if there was any turbulence. That was during the flight from Detroit to Japan. I thought to myself “sure lady, how could we jump that high? I have experienced some turbulence before”. I guess we should never under estimate those attendants because they know what they are talking about. After all, they fly all the time. During our flight from Japan to Singapore, a terrible turbulence hit the plane and it dropped several meters down! In a split second everyone who didn’t have their seatbelt on was “flying” to the roof and that included me, Steve, and all the children except Hannah (because she had her belt on). Everyone was screaming in unison and before we realized what had happened we were back on our seat again. I had a tiny bump on my head and some scratch on my arm. The kids were shaken but no one was seriously injured. Steve was in one of the toilets (lavatories as they are referred to on the plane) and suddenly he was looking down at the bowl! It wasn’t funny at the time but plain hilarious a few days later. So from then on we all had our seat belt fastened. The biggest lesson to be learned is to always listen to the expert. It makes me wonder, how the 228 people in that Flight 447 reacted at that time. I also wonder what would be an alternative to go back to the US other than flying but just as fast. Any suggestions?