Watch: youtube.com slatev.com Follow twitter.com facebook.com Severe turbulence forced a New York-bound flight to divert and land shortly after leaving Houston recently. Passengers were thrown into the ceiling and then back onto the floor. Can turbulence cause a plane to crash? Yes, but it’s very unlikely these days. In 1966 a British Overseas Airways captain strayed from his flight path out of Tokyo so passengers could get a look at Mount Fuji. As the Boeing 707 approached the mountain, it was hit by powerful windsprobably in excess of 140 miles per hourthat tore the tail apart and downed the plane. Aircraft design has come a long way since then, and aerospace engineers say modern aircraft are extremely unlikely to suffer a similar fate. Commercial airliners are now designed to withstand forces 150 percent stronger than anything experienced in the last 40 years of flying. There have also been advances in detection systems. There are two types of turbulence, though they feel basically the same inside the passenger cabin. Storm-related turbulence results when water vapor condenses into droplets, which heats air and makes it rise quickly. The resulting updraft can jostle planes.. Pilots can change course, speed or altitude to avoid this kind of turbulence. Clear air turbulence is harder to detect. It usually occurs when two air masses contact each other at different speeds or directionslike when winds move over mountain peaks, or a plane crosses a jet stream. Pilots must <b>…</b>