The departure from Kolmogorov (1941) scaling of high-order moments of longitudinal velocity increments in a fully developed turbulent channel flow is investigated using data obtained with hot wire anemometry (HWA), laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV) and direct numerical simulation (DNS). The magnitude of the departure increases towards the wall, reaching a local maximum at a distance of about 20 wall units. ©1998 American Institute of Physics.