American Eagle E145 near Kansas City on Mar 26th 2011, turbulence injures flight attendant

Last Update: April 21, 2012 / 16:17:30 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 26, 2011

Cause
Turbulence injures flight attendant

Airline
American Eagle

Flight number
MQ-4355

Departure
Oklahoma City, United States

Destination
Chicago O'Hare, United States

Aircraft Registration
N931AE

Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-145

ICAO Type Designator
E145

An American Eagle Embraer ERJ-145, registration N931AE performing flight MQ-4355 from Oklahoma City,OK to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), was climbing through FL350 towards FL370 out of Oklahoma City about 140nm westsouthwest of Kansas City,MO around 12:35Z when the airplane encountered turbulence causing minor injuries to the only flight attendant on board. The crew decided to divert to Kansas City for a safe landing.

The airplane was able to continue the flight and reached Chicago with a delay of 100 minutes.

The FAA reported the flight attendant received minor injuries in the turbulence encounter.

On Apr 21st 2012 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the accident was:

An in-flight encounter with convectively induced turbulence associated with developing thunderstorms under the flight path during the airplane's climb to cruise flight.

The flight attendant had just finished cabin service and was returning to her seat when the aircraft encountered turbulence associated with a developing thunderstorm below the flight path while the aircraft was climbing through FL320. The flight attendant lost her footing and hit her head at the service galley door, tried to grab something but fell injuring her wrist and knee. Her hand started immediately swelling, she reported to flight crew stating that she would be unable to continue her duties. The captain therefore decided to return to Kansas City where the flight attendant was diagnosed with fractures of wrist and hand. The flight data recorder showed vertical accelerations between 0.6G and 1.54G while the aircraft climbed through FL299. The crew had not received significant meteorological information (SIGMET) 22C forecasting the convective activity in the area from dispatch.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 26, 2011

Cause
Turbulence injures flight attendant

Airline
American Eagle

Flight number
MQ-4355

Departure
Oklahoma City, United States

Destination
Chicago O'Hare, United States

Aircraft Registration
N931AE

Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-145

ICAO Type Designator
E145

This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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