USAir Boeing B767-287ER accident
Boeing B767-287ER · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL91LA091
- 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
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Boeing B767-287ER
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 767
- 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
- N651US
- Operator
- USAir
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CATo Charlotte Douglas International Airport (CLT), Charlotte, NC
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, delayed
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE FLIGHT WAS IN LEVEL CRUISE FLIGHT AT FL430. THERE WAS SIGNIFICANT LEVEL 6 THUNDERSTOM ACTIVITY IN THE IMMEDIATE VICINITY OF THE TOLSA VOR AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT, AND SIGMETS HAD BEEN ISSUED TO AND RECEIVED BY THE FLIGHT CREW ADVISING OF THIS ACTIVITY. THE FLIGHT CREW STATED THAT THE ONLY WEATHER BEING DEPICTED BY THEIR ON BOARD WEATHER RADAR WAS 40 MILES FROM THEIR POSITION AT THE TIME OF THE ACCIDENT AND NOT IN THEIR FLIGHT PATH. ACCORDING TO TRANSCRIPTS OF THEIR CONVERSATION WITH AIR TRAFFIC CONTROL PERSONNEL, APPROXIMATELY FIVE MILES WEST OF THE TULSA VOR AND TWO MINUTES PRIOR TO THE ACCIDENT, THE FLIGHT CREW REQUESTED AND RECEIVED PERMISSION TO DEVIATE FROM THE ASSIGNED COURSE IN ORDER TO AVOID BUILDUPS IN THEIR FLIGHT PATH. THE FLIGHT ENCOUNTERED SEVERE TURBULENCE FOR A PERIOD OF ABOUT 10 TO 20 SECONDS. THE AIRCRAFT DESCENDED 3500 FEET BEFORE THE FLIGHT CREW WAS ABLE TO REGAIN CONTROL OF THE AIRCRAFT'S DESCENT. THE FLIGHT THEN DIVERTED TO MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE IN ORDER TO OBGAIN MEDICAL ATTENTION FOR THOSE PERSONS INJURED IN THE CABIN SECTION OF THE AIRCRAFT.
Probable cause
THE DELAYED INFLIGHT DECISION BY THE PILOT TO MANEUVER THE AIRCRAFT AWAY FROM THUNDERSTORM ACTIVITY.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL91LA091
- Event ID
- 20001212X16912
- Case number
- ATL91LA091
- 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: investigation status, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: b7d698e4a641dc9c57437e7f7e7a6b2d40c0894566931704aeaf0b31ab15c62a; retrieved 2026-09-18T18:55:14.118Z.