ATL86LA202 · Douglas DC-9-31
Douglas DC-9-31 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Tampa International Airport (TPA) to Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM)
Event
- NTSB case
- ATL86LA202
- 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
Douglas DC-9-31
- 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
- N9332
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Tampa International Airport (TPA), Tampa, FLTo Frederick W. Smith International Airport (MEM), Memphis, TN
- 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
- Minor
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
DURING FLT, THE ACFT ENCOUNTERED TURBULENCE (TURBC) WHILE FLYING IN THE VICINITY OF A THUNDERSTORM (TSTM). DURING THE OCCURRENCE, A FLT ATTENDANT, WHO WAS SERVING BEVERAGES, SUSTAINED A FRACTURED LUMBAR VERTEBRAE. RADAR DATA REVEALED THE ACFT WAS ABOUT 4 MI WEST (DOWNWIND) FROM HVY WX. JUST BEFORE THE ENCOUNTER, THE FLT CREW RPRTD THEY WERE FLYING UNDER 'SOME PRETTY GOOD OVERHANGS.' FAA CIRCULAR AC 00-6A, TITLED 'AVIATION WEATHER,' STATES 'DO AVOID BY AT LEAST 20 MILES ANY THUNDERSTORM IDENTIFIED AS SEVERE OR GIVING AN INTENSE RADAR ECHO. THIS IS ESPECIALLY TRUE UNDER THE ANVIL OF A LARGE CUMULONIMBUS.' RPRTDLY, THE SEAT BELT SIGN WAS ON WHEN THE TURBC ENCOUNTER OCCURRED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record ATL86LA202
- Event ID
- 20001213X34081
- Case number
- ATL86LA202
- 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. 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: 4f86fa275e422f49a82727ddb26472c95b83021afe306922c51f30312bf3f9e2; retrieved 2026-09-18T19:57:12.219Z.