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Cases › DCA09FA068 · Part 121 airline

EMBRAER EMB170Republic Airlines Inc.,

Norfolk, VA, USA · 2009-07-27·N135HQ

0
fatal
1
serious
Serious injury
highest injury
—
damage
Replay the flight data3,501 samples · 21 parameters18:28:20.0 – 19:26:40.0AnalyseThe analystOne timeline · precedents · ask the docket · what the record saysGenerateInvestigation briefFacts, cause, recorder extremes, sequence, sourcesSourceNTSB docket6 documents on data.ntsb.gov

What happened

NTSB summary, verbatim

The captain stated that while climbing through about FL220, the flight encountered turbulence while deviating around a convective cell. According to the flight attendant (FA), the turbulence occurred after the captain had "turned off the sterile cockpit" and she was preparing the beverage service with the lead FA. Both FAs were thrown to the floor with one FA falling on top of the other.  As a result, one FA suffered a broken bone in her left foot and the other received minor injuries.  The operator stated that the seat belt was illuminated at the time of the turbulence.

Photographs

1the aircraft, and what the investigators found
The aircraft before the accident
American Eagle Embraer 175 N135HQ departing Boston June 2025
4300streetcar · CC BY 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Probable cause

the Board's determination
an inadvertent encounter with convective turbulence that resulted in serious injuries to a flight attendant.

Occurrence sequence

1 stepsNTSB coding · CICTT taxonomy
  1. 1 · Enroute-climb to cruise
    Turbulence encounter
    defining event

Findings

1 causal · 0 contributing
  • CAUSE
    Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena › Turbulence › Convective turbulence — Effect on personnel

Sequence of events

4 timed eventsfrom the FDR factual report · claude-fable-5-1 (in-session)
  1. takeoffclimbp.3
    Aircraft took off and climbed to approximately 23,000 ft where the event occurred
  2. about 610 seconds after takeoffclimbp.3
    Autopilot disengaged; about five seconds later the aircraft experienced rapidly changing vertical and lateral accelerations lasting approximately 25 seconds; largest vertical accelerations +1.79 g and -0.43 g, largest lateral +0.20 g and -0.18 g
  3. 45 seconds after disengagementclimbp.3
    Autopilot re-engaged as the accelerations returned to normal
  4. 40 minutes after the eventlandingp.3
    Aircraft landed

NTSB analysis

from the final report

The captain stated that while climbing through about FL220, the flight encountered turbulence while deviating around a convective cell. According to the flight attendant (FA), the turbulence occurred after the captain had "turned off the sterile cockpit" and she was preparing the beverage service with the lead FA. Both FAs were thrown to the floor with one FA falling on top of the other.  As a result, one FA suffered a broken bone in her left foot and the other received minor injuries.  The operator stated that the seat belt was illuminated at the time of the turbulence.