China Eastern A332 near Tyumen on Jun 18th 2017, severe turbulence causes loss of 4000 feet and injures 26

Last Update: July 12, 2017 / 21:13:00 GMT/Zulu time

Bookmark this article

Photo of China Eastern Airlines B-5926, Airbus A330-200 — China Eastern Airlines B-5926, Airbus A330-200 (Photo credit: Anna Zvereva / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Jun 18, 2017

Classification
Accident

Airline
China Eastern Airlines

Flight number
MU-774

Departure
Paris Charles de Gaulle, France

Destination
Kunming, China

Aircraft Registration
B-5926

Aircraft Type
Airbus A330-200

ICAO Type Designator
A332

A China Eastern Airbus A330-200, registration B-5926 performing flight MU-774 (Jun 17th) from Paris Charles de Gaulle (France) to Kunming (China) with 218 passengers and 16 crew, was enroute at FL390 about 260nm northeast of Tyumen (Russia) the aircraft encountered severe turbulence including two large jolts causing the aircraft to experience multiple rapid descends and climbs (in excess of 5000 fpm) reaching a minimum of FL349 as well as injuries to 26 people on board. The aircraft continued to Kunming for a safe landing about 5:45 hours later. Four passengers were taken to hospital with serious injuries (fractures and head injuries), 22 passeners with minor injuries.

Passengers reported that many passengers were not buckled in about 6 hours prior to landing in Kunming when turbulence lasting for about 10 minutes set in and resulted in two very large jolts having everyone not being buckled in hitting the cabin ceiling and being thrown back onto the seats. Between the large jolts there were a number of other lesser jolts.

The airport reported 4 passengers received serious injuries including fractures and head injuries, 22 received minor injuries (mainly bruises), 2 more passengers were examined.

The airline reported without identifying when and where the tubulence took place, that the fasten seat belt signs were illuminated however not everyone complied with the instruction. A number of passengers needed to be taken to hospitals.

Radar data show the aircraft was enroute at FL390 about 260nm northeast of Tyumen at 19:05Z at 470 knots over ground, a minute later the aircraft the aircraft descends through FL376 at 490 knots over ground, slows to 364 knots over ground climbing through FL385 at 4000+ fpm, another minute later at 09:08Z is at FL349 at 475 knots over ground, climbs through FL360 at 5000+fpm a minute later, then stabilizes and climbs back to FL390 at about 480-490 knots over ground and climb rates less than 1000 fpm levelling off at FL390 again about 9 minutes after the aircraft departed FL390.

On Jul 12th 2017 The Aviation Herald received information indicating that the crew had observed green weather radar returns about 150nm before the weather, however, turned off the weather radar and did not activate it again until about 10nm before the weather. Despite being night time, it was not completely dark, clouds tops were clearly visible about 2000 feet below the aircraft, the weather radar produced yellow returns. The crew decided to fly over the cloud tops, the aircraft however encountered severe turbulence above the clouds. An overspeed warning was triggered as result of the turbulence, the autopilot was disengaged and the thrust levers moved several times between IDLE and TOGA positions. Both pilots applied side stick inputs, the aircraft pitched up and down as result of those inputs reaching 28.4 degrees nose up/12000 fpm climb and 12.4 degrees nose down/12300 fpm descent, the aircraft deviated up to 39500 feet MSL and down to 33800 feet MSL, the airspeed reached up to 0.92 mach. The maximum vertical acceleration was recorded at 2.14G.