Air turbulence is getting worse on flights because of climate change, with the jetstream becoming choppier since the end of 1970s, scientists have found.
The University of Reading has discovered that the jetstream has become 15 per cent more affected by wind shear in the upper atmosphere over the North Atlantic since satellites began observing it in 1979.
Over the same period the number of passengers and crew getting seriously injured from turbulence globally has doubled from one in a million to two in a million - meaning around 8,000 people a year are now impacted.
Wind shear - the increase in wind speed at high altitudes - causes invisible turbulence which can be severe enough to throw passengers from their seats.
And while global warming has caused temperatures to rise in the lower atmosphere, they have cooled in the stratosphere, creating a 'tug-of-war' effect and making flights more bumpy.