FlarePath

What happened

NTSB summary, verbatim

On October 1, 2015, at about 1118 eastern daylight time, American Airlines flight 982, an Airbus 319-100, N9026C, encountered turbulence for about 15 seconds during cruise while enroute from Maurice Bishop International Airport (TGPY), St. George's, Grenada, to Miami International Airport (KMIA), Miami, Florida. Two passengers were seriously injured, three passengers and one flight attendant received minor injuries, and the airplane was not damaged. The flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from TGPY to KMIA. According to the operator, the seat belt sign was on and onboard radar was being utilized by the flight crew when the turbulence was encountered during cruise at Flight Level 360 in instrument meteorological conditions. After being informed of the possible injuries to the passengers and crew, the flight crew declared an emergency and subsequently landed at KMIA without further incident. Paramedics met the flight upon arrival at the gate and transported two passengers and one flight attendant to the hospital. The flight attendant was diagnosed with a minor injury and released. One passenger was diagnosed with a cervical spine fracture and the other passenger was diagnosed with a cracked rib and possible cracked vertebra.

Photographs

1the aircraft, and what the investigators found

The aircraft before the accident

Probable cause

the Board's determination

an inadvertent encounter with convective turbulence.

Occurrence sequence

1 stepsNTSB coding · CICTT taxonomy

1 · Enroute-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

9 timed eventsfrom the FDR factual report · claude-sonnet-5

1118 EDTCruisep.1
American Airlines flight 982 encountered unexpected severe turbulence for about 15 seconds at a cruising altitude of 36,000 feet while in Instrument Meteorological Conditions (IMC) conditions
1521 UTCCruisep.2
Turbulence encounter occurred at 23.635488° latitude, -78.229694° longitude; just west of Andros Island, Bahamas
1521 UTCCruisep.2
Aircraft was operating on autopilot 1 (the left-side autopilot), and remained so throughout the encounter, at flight level 360
1521 UTCCruisep.2
The encounter lasted about 15 seconds (though flight parameter fluctuations were observed for about 1 minute)
1521 UTCCruisep.3
During the 15 second interval, vertical acceleration fluctuated between minimum and maximum values of +1.65 g and -0.51 g
1521 UTCCruisep.3
Prior to the encounter, the nominal airspeed was 265 knots; during the encounter it fluctuated between 257 knots and 272 knots
1521 UTCCruisep.3
Prior to the encounter, the computed winds aloft were from the southwest at about 17 knots
1521 UTCCruisep.3
Sidestick parameters showed no crew control inputs during the encounter, consistent with the aircraft remaining on autopilot 1
1521 UTCCruisep.3
The left spoilers deployed and the right side did not

NTSB analysis

from the final report

On October 1, 2015, at about 1118 eastern daylight time, American Airlines flight 982, an Airbus 319-100, N9026C, encountered turbulence for about 15 seconds during cruise while enroute from Maurice Bishop International Airport (TGPY), St. George's, Grenada, to Miami International Airport (KMIA), Miami, Florida. Two passengers were seriously injured, three passengers and one flight attendant received minor injuries, and the airplane was not damaged. The flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a regularly scheduled international passenger flight from TGPY to KMIA. According to the operator, the seat belt sign was on and onboard radar was being utilized by the flight crew when the turbulence was encountered during cruise at Flight Level 360 in instrument meteorological conditions. After being informed of the possible injuries to the passengers and crew, the flight crew declared an emergency and subsequently landed at KMIA without further incident. Paramedics met the flight upon arrival at the gate and transported two passengers and one flight attendant to the hospital. The flight attendant was diagnosed with a minor injury and released. One passenger was diagnosed with a cervical spine fracture and the other passenger was diagnosed with a cracked rib and possible cracked vertebra.