Trans World Airlines Douglas DC-9-82 accident
Douglas DC-9-82 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL) to Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW)
Event
- NTSB case
- MIA88LA090
- 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
Douglas DC-9-82
- Aircraft type
- Douglas DC-9
- 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
- N915TW
- Operator
- Trans World Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From St. Louis Lambert International Airport (STL), ST LOUIS, MOTo Southwest Florida International Airport (RSW), Fort Myers, FL
- 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
- Passenger › Instructions, written/verbal, not followed
- Passenger › Seat belt, improper use of
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE CAPT LEFT THE SEAT BELT SIGN ON AFTER TAKEOFF. THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS MADE A FOLLOWUP ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE PASSENGERS TO REMAIN SEATED AND KEEP THEIR SEATBELTS FASTENED DUE TO THE TURBULENCE THEY WERE ENCOUNTERING. A PASSENGER ELECTED TO GET UP FROM HER SEAT AND GO TO THE AFT LAVATORY. AS THE PASSENGER WAS LEAVING THE AFT LAVATORY THE AIRCRAFT ENCOUNTERED MODERATE TURBULENCE. THE PASSENGER AND A FLIGHT ATTENDANT WHO WAS ATTEMPTING TO ASSIST HER WERE THROWN TO THE FLOOR AND RECEIVED INJURIES.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record MIA88LA090
- Event ID
- 20001213X24948
- Case number
- MIA88LA090
- 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: fad26a973efc1a6ad4b701a05211f47c1ea38fb5f2de665c43fe4f851e6ef5c6; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:30:35.784Z.