American A319 near Denver on Feb 14th 2016, turbulence injures passenger
Last Update: April 25, 2020 / 16:24:01 GMT/Zulu time
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Feb 14, 2016
Classification
Accident
Cause
Turbulence
Airline
American Airlines
Flight number
AA-476
Departure
Phoenix, United States
Destination
Minneapolis, United States
Aircraft Registration
N827AW
Aircraft Type
Airbus A319
ICAO Type Designator
A319
On Feb 16th 2016 the FAA reported the passenger received serious injuries, the occurrence was rated an accident.
On Nov 30th 2017 the NTSB reported they have opened an investigation into the accident, investigators are using data of various entities like the FAA, the investigators are not going to travel in support of the investigation.
On Apr 25th 2020 the NTSB relesed their final report concluding the probable cause of the accident was:
an encounter with turbulence that resulted in a serious injury to a passenger who was standing when the fasten seatbelt sign was illuminated.
The NTSB wrote:
The flight crew stated that at FL350, prior to their planned top-of-descent, Minneapolis Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC) informed them to expect light turbulence during the descent through about FL280. The captain made a public address announcement to the passengers and cabin crew to expect light turbulence so to fasten their seatbelts. The seatbelt sign was on at that time, and had been on most of the flight due to light turbulence. As the flight was descending through about FL310, the nose of the airplane dipped down and the airspeed increased, and to avoid an overspeed the pilot flying pitched the nose up and deployed the speed brakes. Subsequently, they received a call from the flight attendants that a passenger had been injured after having stood up "to stretch" just before the turbulence. After arriving at the gate, the passenger was transported to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken leg.
Aircraft Registration Data
Incident Facts
Date of incident
Feb 14, 2016
Classification
Accident
Cause
Turbulence
Airline
American Airlines
Flight number
AA-476
Departure
Phoenix, United States
Destination
Minneapolis, United States
Aircraft Registration
N827AW
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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