Continental Airlines Flight 276
McDonnell Douglas MD-82 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Denver International Airport (DEN) to George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH)
Event
- NTSB case
- FTW95LA176
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Instrument Meteorological Cond
McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-82
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N83872
- Operator
- Continental Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Denver International Airport (DEN), Denver, COTo George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, TX
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 121: Air Carrier
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route · cruise
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight encounter with weather
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- None
Cause areas
- Weather condition › Turbulence, clear air
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS RESTRICTED TO FL250 DUE TO AN INOPERATIVE PRESSURIZATION COMPONENT. AIRMET 13C WAS IN EFFECT FOR A LINE OF SEVERE THUNDERSTORMS WITH TOPS ABOVE FL450 EXTENDING ALONG AND TO THE NORTH OF THE FLIGHT ROUTE. THE FLIGHT DEVIATED TO THE SOUTH OF THE THUNDERSTORMS; HOWEVER, MODERATE TO SEVERE TURBULENCE WAS ENCOUNTERED 3 TIMES IN ABOUT 10 MINUTES WITH EACH ENCOUNTER LASTING ABOUT 5 TO 10 SECONDS. THE CREW REPORTED THE ENCOUNTER AS CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE. THE CAPTAIN STATED 'CLEAR OF CLOUDS, NO TURBULENCE REPORTED BY ATC, NOTHING PAINTED ON OUR, OR ATC RADAR ON OUR FLIGHTPATH, CLEARING NEAREST CELL BY ABOUT 35-40 MILES.' ONE FLIGHT ATTENDANT, WHO WAS IN THE COCKPIT, REPORTED SITTING ON THE COCKPIT FLOOR AND HOLDING ON TO ARM RESTS DURING THE TURBULENCE. AFTER DEPARTING THE COCKPIT, SHE RESPONDED TO A CALL FROM THE SERIOUSLY INJURED FLIGHT ATTENDANT.
Probable cause
CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE ENCOUNTERED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record FTW95LA176
- Event ID
- 20001207X03300
- Case number
- FTW95LA176
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: local date, investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 1995-04-20.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 923a6649755f60b125020945549b08af19f1599ef11dd8b7fa75391034ef7fad; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:01:32.045Z.