LAX07CA077 · Bombardier, Inc. DHC-8-103
Hawaii Island Air Bombardier, Inc. DHC-8-103 · Accident: in flight encounter with weather en route
From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) to Kahului International Airport (OGG)
Narrative check · The NTSB narrative appears to contradict this record's location. Values are shown as recorded, not corrected; compare with the narrative.
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX07CA077
- 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
- General aviation
- 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
Bombardier, Inc. DHC-8-103
- Aircraft type
- Bombardier DHC-8
- 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
- N979HA
- Operator
- Hawaii Island Air
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL), Honolulu, HITo Kahului International Airport (OGG), Kahului, HI
- 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 91: General Aviation
- 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 · descent
- 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 › Turbulence, clear air
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
The airplane encountered severe turbulence during an en route descent and a captain who was deadheading was not secured in his seat and received serious injuries. The airplane was being positioned to another airport, and had a deadheading flight crew on board. Prior to the descent, the captain noted an airspeed anomaly for the existing power setting. He also observed that the flap indicator showed a "slight" deployment of the flaps. He requested that the deadheading captain look out a cabin window, and verify the flap position. The deadheading captain reported to the flying captain that the flaps were in the fully retracted position. About this time, ATC personnel requested that a descent be initiated, which the flight crew initiated by reducing the power to slow down the airplane. As the deadheading captain was making his way back to his cabin seat, the airplane encountered severe turbulence, which lasted about 5 to 10 seconds. He was thrown about the cabin and injured. The flying captain declared an emergency. The flight landed without incident, and taxied to the gate where the injured crewmember was transported to the hospital. A review was conducted of the ATC air-ground recordings between Maui approach control (APCON), two other airplanes flying in the area, and the accident airplane (Moku 979). Prior to Moku 979 checking in with Maui approach, the two other airplanes reported moderate turbulence at 4,000 feet, and moderate to occasional severe turbulence between 2,000 and 2,500 feet. Both airplanes were about 15 miles east of Maui, in the general vicinity of the accident airplane. The controller contacted FSS, and advised them of the PIREP's. About 75 seconds later, Moku 979 reported in to the approach control. The controller told them to "expect lower in 5 miles." The controller did not advise Moku 979 of the reported turbulence in the area. Ninety-five seconds later the controller instructed Moku 979 to begin a descent to 1,500 feet. Fifteen seconds later Moku 979 declared an emergency and reported the injury.
Probable cause
an in-flight encounter with clear air turbulence, which resulted in a serious injury to a deadheading crewmember.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX07CA077
- Event ID
- 20070305X00244
- Case number
- LAX07CA077
- 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: local date, investigation status, coordinates, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date; the NTSB stores the UTC date 2007-02-01.
- API snapshot SHA-256: a7fac499d37b208e9026f2777f300000639130dc5e0362d94f3b49333b7f1457; retrieved 2026-09-21T08:51:22.286Z.