American A333 near Long Island on Aug 5th 2017, turbulence injures 19
Last Update: April 26, 2020 / 14:22:14 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Aug 5, 2017
Classification
Accident
Cause
Turbulence
Airline
American Airlines
Flight number
AA-759
Departure
Athens, Greece
Destination
Philadelphia, United States
Aircraft Registration
N276AY
Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300
ICAO Type Designator
A333
Passengers reported flight attendants were just serving drinks when the aircraft seemed to drop, everything including the drinks lifted by about 4 feet and impacted the cabin ceiling then came down again, the drinks wetting passengers and cabin crew. One flight attendant appeared to have dislodged her shoulder.
The airline reported 3 passengers and 7 cabin crew were taken to hospitals with injuries.
On Aug 6th 2017 the FAA reported the aircraft encontered turbulence while enroute over the Atlantic Ocean.
The US Aviation Weather Service reported an A333 pilot reported moderate to severe turbulence causing 2 severe bumps and injuries to passengers and cabin crew off the eastern end of Long Island at FL280. (Editorial note: AA-759 descended through FL280 about 70nm east of New York's JFK Airport off the eastern end of Long Island while obviously deviating around weather at 18:35Z).
On Aug 7th 2017 the FAA reported the aircraft encountered turbulence about 10nm off the coast of Long Island, 7 crew and 3 passengers received minor injuries.
On Aug 14th 2017 the FAA updated their report now stating that one cabin crew received serious injuries, 8 other cabin crew sustained unknown injuries and 10 passengers received unknown injuries. The occurrence was rated an accident.
On Aug 17th 2017 the NTSB advised that the aircraft encountered turbulence over at an unknown position in Oceanic Airspace, one flight attendant received an arm fracture. The occurrence was rated an accident and is being investigated by the NTSB.
On Mar 16th 2020 the NTSB released their preliminary report stating:
On August 5, 2017, at 1435 eastern daylight time, an Airbus 330, N276AY, operated by American Airlines as flight 759 encountered turbulence at 28,000 feet about 25 miles east of East Hampton, NY. One flight attendant suffered a broken arm and there were 10 minor injuries among the passengers and flight attendants. ... According to the operator, the flight passed very close to a small, but rapidly developing convective cell with tops near FL300. A steady increase in lightning reports was noted immediately after encountering the cell. The cell was most likely dominated by updrafts at the time of the encounter and dissipated 30 minutes after the report. Other isolated to scattered areas of convection were developing along a cold front over Eastern Long Island at the time. ATC radar depicted an area of moderate to extreme precipitation returns along the airplane's route of flight. ATC did not advise the flight crew of the returns until after the crew reported the turbulence encounter. The flight crew reported that the seat belt sign was on at the time of the turbulence.
On Apr 25th 2020 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause was:
an inadvertent encounter with convective turbulence.
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Aug 5, 2017
Classification
Accident
Cause
Turbulence
Airline
American Airlines
Flight number
AA-759
Departure
Athens, Greece
Destination
Philadelphia, United States
Aircraft Registration
N276AY
Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-300
ICAO Type Designator
A333
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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