Piedmont E145 at Philadelphia on Dec 15th 2019, turbulence injures flight attendant
Last Update: January 7, 2022 / 12:12:38 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 15, 2019
Classification
Accident
Airline
Piedmont Airlines
Flight number
AA-4797
Departure
Columbia, United States
Destination
Philadelphia, United States
Aircraft Registration
N648AE
Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-145
ICAO Type Designator
E145
Airport ICAO Code
KPHL
The FAA reported the flight attendant received a serious injury, a fracture of the right hand ankle when the aircraft encountered turbulence. The occurrence was rated an accident.
On Jan 7th 2022 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the accident was:
An inadvertent encounter with convective turbulence.
The NTSB reported the flight attendant received serious injuries.
The NTSB analysed:
The captain was the pilot flying, and the first officer was monitoring. As the flight approached KPHL, the first officer made a public address announcement to the flight attendant to prepare the cabin for arrival. While descending through about 10,000 feet for the visual approach to runway 35, the crew noted a cloud layer below them and, in order to transit the cloud layer quickly, the captain increased the descent from about 1,000 feet per minute (fpm) to about 1,300 fpm.
When the airplane entered the cloud layer at about 7, 00 feet, it encountered moderate turbulence along with icing conditions. The captain stated that to prevent an overspeed and mitigate turbulence effects, he immediately reduced the thrust to idle and inadvertently pressed the autopilot disconnect button instead of the Touch Control Steering (TCS) button, which he had intended to activate in order to manually raise the airplanes nose. He stated he maintained control of the airplane, eased the nose up to level flight, and immediately reengaged the autopilot. The crew stated the turbulence lasted about 25 to 30 seconds.
At the time of the turbulence encounter, the flight attendant (FA) was in the aisle conducting her before landing compliance checks. She was at the rear of the cabin turning around when she was thrown to the floor, injuring her ankle. Medically qualified passengers assisted the FA with the injury and another passenger manned the FA’s jumpseat during landing. Emergency medical personnel met the airplane at the gate and transported the FA to the local hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured ankle.
Metars:
KPHL 151354Z 23013KT 10SM OVC070 07/01 A2982 RMK AO2 SLP099 T00720006 $=
KPHL 151254Z 24011KT 10SM OVC060 07/01 A2979 RMK AO2 SLP088 T00670006 $=
KPHL 151154Z 24012KT 10SM OVC060 06/01 A2976 RMK AO2 SLP078 70005 T00610006 10067 20050 51029 $=
KPHL 151054Z 24011KT 10SM BKN060 OVC190 06/01 A2974 RMK AO2 SLP069 T00610006 $=
KPHL 150954Z 24009KT 10SM FEW048 BKN210 06/01 A2971 RMK AO2 SLP060 T00560006 $=
KPHL 150854Z 26012KT 10SM FEW046 FEW140 BKN210 06/M01 A2968 RMK AO2 SLP048 T00561006 51035 $=
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Dec 15, 2019
Classification
Accident
Airline
Piedmont Airlines
Flight number
AA-4797
Departure
Columbia, United States
Destination
Philadelphia, United States
Aircraft Registration
N648AE
Aircraft Type
Embraer ERJ-145
ICAO Type Designator
E145
Airport ICAO Code
KPHL
This article is published under license from Avherald.com. © of text by Avherald.com.
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