Boeing 767-232 N109DL

Summary

On 29 September 2004 at about 17:45 local time, a Boeing 767-232 registered N109DL was involved in an accident near Caribbean Sea. 145 people were on board and one was seriously injured. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

29 September 2004 at 17:45

Classification

Accident

Location

Caribbean Sea

Nearest airport

Aruba, Netherlands Antilles (AUA)

Coordinates

13.0000, -71.5000

Aircraft

Boeing 767-232

Registration

N109DL

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Not recorded

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Atlanta → Oranjestad

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

MIA04LA134

1 person was seriously injured.

An inadvertent encounter with severe turbulence during cruise, which resulted in a flight attendant being injured.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record. This site does not paraphrase or interpret it.

Read the full NTSB narrative

The captain said the seat belt sign was illuminated and he made a public address requesting that passengers stay seated with their seat belts fastened. He said they encountered very brief moderate turbulence and a flight attendant was injured. The first officer/pilot-not-flying stated that prior to the turbulence event the captain had illuminated the seat belt sign, and had made a public address. The first officer also said that he had contacted the flight attendants and told them to stay seated. He said he then requested and received clearance to deviate around known weather ahead of their flight path. He said they did not penetrate any weather as seen on the airplane's display, but that they were in instrument meteorological conditions, and returned to visual meteorological conditions momentarily, after which another cloud was in front of them, but there was no precipitation associated with it on the radar display. He said there was not enough time to maneuver, and they were within the cloud for about 5 seconds at which time the turbulence occurred. One flight attendant stated that the time between the captain's announcement and the actual turbulence was a mere few seconds. A second flight attendant stated that she along with two other flight attendants were in the aft galley when the seat belt light was turned on to indicate initial approach when about 20 minutes away from Aruba. She further stated that there was normal light chop as they prepared the galley for landing. The second flight attendant said that the passengers were seated, when suddenly they encountered severe turbulence and the airplane dropped and jolted several times. A third flight attendant said that approximately 100 miles out from Aruba the captain turned on the seat belt sign and asked every one to be seated. She said the two flight attendants in the back were cleaning and stowing catering items and were not seated. Examination of the flight data recorder showed multiple vertical acceleration cycles between about positive 1.8 and 0.0 Gs, associated with the event.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.