Boeing 737-7H4 N261WN

Summary

On 2 December 2011 at about 03:53 local time, a Boeing 737-7H4 registered N261WN, operated by Southwest Airlines Co, was involved in an accident near Oakland, California, United States. 100 people were on board and one was seriously injured, 2 had minor injuries. The NTSB has published a probable cause for this accident; it is quoted in full below.

Date

2 December 2011 at 03:53

Classification

Accident

Location

Oakland, California, United States

Nearest airport

Oakland International Airport (OAK)

Coordinates

37.7292, -122.2409

Aircraft

Boeing 737-7H4

Registration

N261WN

Category

Airplane

Engines

2

Operator

Southwest Airlines Co

Operating rule

Part 121: Air Carrier

Phase of flight

Not recorded

Route

Albuquerque → Oakland

Aircraft damage

Not recorded

Weather

VMC

Light

Day

NTSB number

WPR12LA053

1 person was seriously injured.

The flight crew’s flight into known severe turbulence associated with mountain wave activity.

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

Read the full NTSB narrative

The flight was transitioning through an area of known severe turbulence. One of the flight attendants reported that the flight crew asked the cabin crew to secure the cabin early as they expected to encounter turbulence during the descent. Shortly thereafter, the airplane encountered severe turbulence and the flight attendants were thrown about the galley; one sustained a serious injury. The cockpit voice recorder contained audio that was not relevant to the flight (it was likely recorded over by subsequent events), thus it could not be conclusively determined when the flight crew asked the flight attendants to be seated because they could not recall. It is likely that the flight crew’s request for the cabin to be secured was close to the time of the turbulence encounter, since none of the flight attendants had completed securing the service items when the encounter occurred. Synoptic conditions were favorable for mountain wave activity and a significant meteorological information (SIGMET) advisory and airmen’s meteorological information advisories had been issued for turbulence over the region. The flight crew also had an advisory issued from their enhanced weather information systems for severe turbulence. The event occurred in the region that the SIGMET and the advisory for severe turbulence had been issued. According to the filed flight plan, the flight was to descend before entering the advisory area for weather avoidance; however, the planned descent was not followed.

Quoted verbatim from the NTSB record.