Delta Airlines Boeing 767-332ER accident
Boeing 767-332ER · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA00LA267
- 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 767-332ER
- 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
- N172DZ
- Operator
- Delta Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport (FLL), Fort Lauderdale, FLTo Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), GA
- 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
- Weather condition › Turbulence in clouds
Approximate · Estimated position: the centre of Atlanta, GA, the place the record names. Not the accident site.
NTSB narrative
The flight was descending out of FL290, when it encountered severe turbulence. The first officer was the pilot flying at the time, the speed brakes were extended, the airspeed was 290 knots, and weather radar was in use, with no indications of conditions associated with turbulence. There were no reports of turbulence from either air traffic control (ATC), or other aircraft. The seat belt sign was "ON" for 10 minutes prior to the accident. At the time of the accident the flight attendants were in the galleys and aisles performing cabin duties associated with the beginning of descent. When the turbulence was encountered, they were thrown initially upward, and then deposited into various positions on the floor and seats. Passengers who had not fastened their seat belts were also thrown vertically upward, and then back down. The flight was provided priority handling for landing, and landed at Atlanta without further incident. According to the flight attendants the flight had encountered "a little chop" while climbing. The "fasten seatbelt" sign was off until they encountered an area of moderate turbulence when the "fasten seatbelt" sign came on and the captain made an announcement. The sign did not go out for the remainder of the flight. The flight attendants had just finished the beverage service and the galley carts were being restocked. The airplane "buffeted for 4-6 seconds." Three flight attendants in the aft galley were "pretty badly hurt." Five flight attendants and three passengers were transported to area hospitals for their injuries.
Probable cause
an in-flight encounter with turbulence in clouds during a normal descent, resulting in serious injuries.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA00LA267
- Event ID
- 20001212X22037
- Case number
- MIA00LA267
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (5)
- 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: db796cd71b1fef8b4f6f5c201e6fc3da3aaa529f062b447e05e7c4438973e230; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:24:35.471Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N172DZ; the operator shown is the name the NTSB records it doing business as.