Anyone an airline pilot? Got a question....

[vscience]

Anyone an airline pilot? What would cause a commercial airplane to dip vertical in flight?
Last night, I was on an flight to Florida. About half-way into the flight, the jumbo commercial airplane (American Airlines) jerked a sharp 30-45 degree wing / side dip on the right side. IMO, if we flipped a little more, we would have flipped upside down! The pilot quickly snapped it back but everyone was freaking out. We never got a reason for it. The pilot and staff said nothing. All of the passengers were frozen silent - in shock.
I'm still wondering what could have caused the plane to do this? Perhaps the pilot fell asleep? Very scary!! Any guesses?

 

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[Mackaydon]

First guess: Aircraft caught the fringe of a dry microburst.
Second guess: To avoid collision
Don...

 

[1320]

Cockpit error? A crew member may have fat fingered the auto pilot settings or a mistake could have occurred if control of the aircraft was switched from pilot to co-pilot or vice versa.

Based on the crews silence, my money is on cockpit error.

 

[Tpmetal]

Only time I have had this happen was when the pilot was not low enough in altitude in his landing approach. He dove nearly straight down several hundred feet so he didn't have to loop back around the airport for another attempt. Also silence on the intercom.... Funny enough it also on a flight to florida.

 

[vscience]

Good suggestion. I also wondered if the pilot spilled his coffee and bumped the wheel.

 

[signal_line]

What? No apology over the intercom? Sounds like a cover-up to me.

CAT clear air turbulence can be bad. Stormy weather can cause turbulence all over the place. Probably thought nothing of it.

 

[A2coins]

They didn't charge ya extra lol