American Airlines Flight 321
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From LaGuardia Airport (LGA) to Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD)
Event
- NTSB case
- CHI02LA043
- 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
McDonnell Douglas DC-9-82
- 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
- N488AA
- Operator
- American Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From LaGuardia Airport (LGA), NEW YORK, NYTo Chicago O'Hare International Airport (ORD), Chicago, IL
- 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 › Unsafe/hazardous condition warning, not complied with
- Weather condition › Turbulence
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
A passenger sustained a serious in-flight injury when the flight encountered turbulence. The passenger stated, "When I got up to go to bathroom there was no warning of any turbulence, there was no seat belt sign. Outside weather, lighting conditions I recall as normal. ... I do not recall any voice announcement of turbulence while I was in the toilet. ... As I was coming out, may be two feet from the entrance of the toilet I was thrown up-down a number of times. I tried to sit or catch the seats in vain. I saw two flight attendants seated and every attempt I made to catch something was failed. It was extremely severe turbulence. ... I fell on the ground. I saw my rt ankle is completely dislocated." The Captain stated, "Seatbelt sign was on from beginning of flight due to light chop. Ride began to deteriorate at [Flight Level] FL280 so we descended to FL240. Ride was still light chop until a point past [London VOR] YXU30 on [Jet airway] J36. We encountered a pocket of severe turb[ulence]. Immediately requested descent to FL200. After receiving clearance to descend ride smoothed out passing FK200. Flight attendants called up on the interphone and reported a man who was exiting aft lav as we hit the turb had injured his foot. Flight attendants reported to captain that foot was possibly broken. Crew notified [Air Traffic Control] ATC of medical emergency and requested landing at DTW and for medical assistance to meet aircraft. ... Uneventful landing was made. Paramedics came up aft airstair at the gate and assisted injured passenger." A flight attendant stated, "Then [the], (passenger) got up and came to the back. I told him that 'the seat belt sign was on and that he should be in his seat with his seat belt on.' He continues to the RH bathroom. [The #4 flight attendant] got up and a PA from the aft PA. She told the passengers that, 'the seat belt sign was on and they should remain in their seat with their seat belts on.' She then returned to row 30 seat F. About 1-2 minutes after her PA the passenger ... came out of the lav. It was bumpier then so I told him to take a seat. Right now in row 30-seat D. As he started in for row 30 we hit severe turbulence."
Probable cause
The turbulence encountered in-flight and the passenger not complying with the flight and cabin crew’s warning of the turbulance.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record CHI02LA043
- Event ID
- 20011204X02343
- Case number
- CHI02LA043
- 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: 6c056452b11cc0774939e89ba148119612ce58a0d0dfc86189c07531d9e262ba; retrieved 2026-09-18T16:07:53.959Z.
- The NTSB's operator name is blank for N488AA; the operator shown is the name the NTSB's other records give its FAA operator code, AALA.