A319
Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude; Inflight Event / Encounter Wake Vortex Encounter
Flight Crew Regained Aircraft Control; General Physical Injury / Incapacitation
Environment - Non Weather Related; Procedure
At cruise 37;000 ft. encountered wake turbulence from a 747. Kansas City Center had pointed out the 747 and we saw them early. They were cruising a thousand feet above us going west. When they passed us I didn't think that they were close enough to be a concern. 1-2 minutes after they passed we hit their wake turbulence. Our aircraft rolled 25-30 degrees to the left. Both the first officer and I grabbed the control stick and the autopilot was off. We got a dual input warning and since it was my first officer's leg; he was the pilot flying; I called 'you got it?' I didn't want us both trying to control the aircraft at the same time. He confirmed he had it. The aircraft then was rolled to the right. Then we had another roll to the left; more shallow. We gained I believe at least 500ft. while we struggled to control the roll. I called Kansas City Center and told them that we had this problem with the wake turbulence. They seemed unconcerned. I checked on our flight attendants. Our first had fallen and hurt her back but didn't want any medical assistance. All the passengers were seated. I made an announcement explaining what had caused the turbulence. My copilot and I had food trays on our tables and nothing had come off; but from smooth cruise flight to what felt like moderate turbulence was alarming.In my experience I've not had an encounter with wake turbulence in cruise as bad as that. When the 747 had passed us the horizontal separation had looked sufficient that I didn't think the wake would be as severe as it was. In the future I will query ATC more when advised that a heavy is pointed out as traffic and find out how close they predict that their wake path may be.
We identified the traffic and watched it pass by. About one minute later; the aircraft encountered wake turbulence from the B747. The aircraft rolled a little then it was banking to 25 degrees in a left turn. The aircraft kept trying to roll to the left for 4-7 seconds. Turned the autopilot off and manually corrected the airplane without a too aggressive input because the seat belt sign was off and the altitude we were cruising. The aircraft flew out of the wake. The automation was reestablished.
A319 flight crew reported a wake turbulence encounter at FL370 from an opposite direction B747 that was 1000 feet above them.