LAX01LA136 · Airbus Industrie A320-232
Airbus Industrie A320-232 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) to Harry Reid International Airport (LAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX01LA136
- 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
- Unknown
- 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
Airbus Industrie A320-232
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A320
- 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
- N654AW
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK), New York, NYTo Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, NV
- 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
- Pilot in command › In-flight planning/decision, improper
- Pilot in command › Weather evaluation, improper
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
One flight attendant in the aft galley was seriously injured and four others aboard the air carrier flight received minor injuries when the airplane encountered moderate to severe clear air turbulence in cruise at flight level 310 (FL310, 31,000 feet). About 30 minutes before the turbulence was encountered, the company flight dispatcher communicated to the flight crew that the flight was approaching an area of forecast moderate to severe turbulence associated with mountain wave activity between FL310 and FL390 (39,000 feet). The dispatcher recommended that the flight alter course and descend to FL280 (28,000 feet). Eighteen minutes before the turbulence was encountered the pilot requested a "ride report" at FL310 from air traffic control and was told to expect "occasional light chop, nothing real bad." The pilot remained at FL310 and remained on the existing routing. Approaching the area of forecast turbulence, he illuminated the seat belt sign and advised the passengers of the potential for turbulence. He also advised the flight attendants to stow the galley equipment. Approximately 3 to 4 minutes later, the flight encountered turbulence. The injured flight attendant was one of two in the aft galley. The other flight attendant reported that when the turbulence started they were "jolted" a couple of times during which she recalled her feet came off the floor and then the turbulence subsided. They "scrambled" toward their jumpseats; however, they encountered additional, more severe, turbulence and it became impossible to hold onto anything. She recalled being thrown about the galley; hitting the ceiling, counters, and doors before being "slammed" to the floor. When the turbulence ceased, the flight descended to flight level 280 and continued to its intended destination without further incident. The airplane's digital flight data recorder showed the aircraft encountered three vertical acceleration excursions between 1.449 g's and -0.379 g's over a 16-second period.
Probable cause
The failure of the pilot-in-command to properly evaluate a hazardous weather advisory and his failure to adequately alter course and flight altitude to avoid the area of hazardous weather.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX01LA136
- Event ID
- 20010507X00899
- Case number
- LAX01LA136
- 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: 2ae1b5444d42640c8ec8f90cc9737d51a9e56644243441936fdc8da653020d9a; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:14:59.417Z.