United Airlines A319 near Kirksville on May 9th 2011, severe turbulence injures flight attendant

Last Update: May 29, 2013 / 14:44:00 GMT/Zulu time

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Incident Facts

Date of incident
May 9, 2011

Classification
Accident

Airline
United

Flight number
UA-273

Departure
Phoenix, United States

Destination
Chicago O'Hare, United States

Aircraft Registration
N801UA

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

A United Airlines Airbus A319-100, registration N801UA performing flight UA-273 from Phoenix,AZ to Chicago O'Hare,IL (USA), was enroute at Fl350 near Kirkville,MO around 04:00L (09:00Z) when the aircraft encountered severe turbulence. The crew continued to Chicago where the aircraft landed safely about 40 minutes later.

The FAA reported a flight attendant received injuries during the severe turbulence encounter.

On May 29th 2013 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable cause of the accident was:

An inadvertent encounter with unforecast convective turbulence.

The aircraft was enroute at FL370, the ride had been smooth, the fasten seat belt signs were turned off when the aircraft climbed through FL320. The weather radar showed no returns although both crews were operating their weather radars, there had been no pilot reports of turbulence or other weather reports suggesting turbulence activity. The flight data recorder revealed that the aircraft encountered strong and adverse wind fluctuations in all three axes, the vertical component being 80 knots upwards over 10 seconds. Weather radar data revealed after the accident that the aircraft had flown through the extreme top of a rapidly developing area of convective activity, the weather radar showed the cell activity as light to moderate. The NTSB stated, that although both crew were operating their respective weather radars, neither of the pilots actively manipulated the weather radar beam due to lack of severe weather reports, the adjustment of radar beam would have been necessary to detect the cell however.
Incident Facts

Date of incident
May 9, 2011

Classification
Accident

Airline
United

Flight number
UA-273

Departure
Phoenix, United States

Destination
Chicago O'Hare, United States

Aircraft Registration
N801UA

Aircraft Type
Airbus A319

ICAO Type Designator
A319

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