Horizon Air Industries Flight 2457
Fokker FK-28-4000 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA) to Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX00LA098
- 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
Fokker FK-28-4000
- Aircraft type
- Fokker FK-28
- 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
- N493US
- Operator
- Horizon Air Industries
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Seattle–Tacoma International Airport (SEA), Seattle, WATo Fresno Yosemite International Airport (FAT), Fresno, CA
- 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 · descent
- 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
- Passenger › Passenger briefing, not complied with
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The captain initiated descent from flight level (FL) 290 and illuminated the "fasten seatbelts" sign. Upon reaching FL 240, the air began to get "choppy." As they descended below FL 240, the flight attendants were notified to clean up and be seated. A passenger announcement was made at the same time including possible turbulence. Approximately FL 230, the flight attendants were notified to all be seated. At FL 220 they encountered severe turbulence for about 5 seconds. Two or 3 minutes later, they encountered severe turbulence again, for about 5 seconds. On the way to her seat, one of the flight attendants stopped because of a passenger who had not fastened his seat belt. While she was instructing the passenger, the aircraft encountered severe turbulence and she was thrown about the cabin. The "A" flight attendant next notified the flight crew that the "B" flight attendant had been injured. The captain told the "A" flight attendant to help put the "B" flight attendant in her seat and then to return to her own seat as soon as possible. Air traffic control was notified of the severe turbulence and that medical assistance would be needed upon their arrival. Company flight operations in Fresno was also informed of the situation. Upon arrival at the gate, all of the passengers deplaned without further incident. Paramedics boarded the aircraft and attended to the "B" flight attendant. Subsequent x-rays revealed that she had sustained a fractured ankle.
Probable cause
the failure of the passenger to fasten his seat belt without the necessity of being instructed by the flight attendant.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX00LA098
- Event ID
- 20001212X20517
- Case number
- LAX00LA098
- 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: 0c297bfc96b6be577eb96beb1cd61c4256c943be92d620bd2a6ea5431061fa25; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:49:04.771Z.