DEN85FA040 · McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS) to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP)
Event
- NTSB case
- DEN85FA040
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-30
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell 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
- N942
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NVTo Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport / Wold–Chamberlain Field (MSP), Minneapolis, MN
- 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
- Weather condition › Mountain wave
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
WHILE EN ROUTE FROM LAS VEGAS, NV TO MINNEAPOLIS, MN AT FL330, THE ACFT HAD BEEN IN SMOOTH AIR FOR AT LEAST 30 MIN WHEN CLEAR AIR TURBULENCE (CAT) WAS ENCOUNTERED. THE FLT CREW TURNED ON THE 'FASTEN SEAT BELT' SIGN. A FLT ATTENDANT, ATTEMPTING TO BUCKLE INTO A REAR CABIN FOLDING SEAT, WAS THROWN FROM THE SEAT & SUSTAINED A BACK INJURY. THE PLT MADE AN UNEVENTFUL NON-SCHEDULED LANDING AT DENVER, CO. THERE WAS NO FORCAST FOR CAT AT FL330, ALTHO 'CHOP' HAD BEEN REPORTED AT LOWER ALTITUDES. LATER, THE AIRCREWS OF 2 OTHER ACFT REPORTED MOUNTAIN WAVE ACTIVITY & A 30 TO 60 KT LOSS OF AIRSPEED IN THAT VICINITY. THE NATIONAL WX SERVICE ISSUED AN ADVISORY, EFFECTIVE AT 1110 TO 1300 MST, TO ADVISE PLTS OF LOCALLY SEVERE TURBULENCE WITH MOUNTAIN WAVE ACTIVITY BETWEEN FL310 & FL450 DUE TO STRONG WESTERLY WINDS ALOFT.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DEN85FA040
- Event ID
- 20001214X41754
- Case number
- DEN85FA040
- 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: ef3ecc6da428ae02d583d40d3f145d71a37affcb16715e63235ac3cdd3e21f61; retrieved 2026-09-18T20:34:04.458Z.