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American Eagle Airlines Embraer EMB-145LR accident

23 Nov 2010 · Madison, WI, United States

Embraer EMB-145LR · Accident: cabin safety event while standing

From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW) to Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN)

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Event

NTSB case
CEN11LA092
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

Embraer EMB-145LR

Aircraft type
Embraer EMB-145
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
N678AE
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Dallas Fort Worth International Airport (DFW), Dallas, TXTo Dane County Regional Truax Field (MSN), Madison, WI
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
Standing · engine(s) not operating
Defining eventThe 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
Cabin safety event
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

  • Personnel issues › Action/decision

Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, which marks them as estimated or does not say; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

A wheelchair-designated passenger wearing an ankle brace was instructed to remain seated and wait for assistance that would be provided after the other passengers had deplaned. Despite these instructions, the passenger attempted to deplane without assistance and without the aid of her crutches, which had been stowed in the crew closet for the flight. While walking down the aisle of the airplane's cabin, the passenger fell near the forward galley and broke both of her ankles.

Probable cause

The passenger's decision to deplane without assistance despite having a preexisting condition that limited her mobility.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record CEN11LA092
Event ID
20101203X60119
Case number
CEN11LA092
Dataset
full-current
Source SHA-256
5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
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, coordinates, 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: 4e5a9a5d96dde1685db64b2c608c91473a90df897b035480f043ad58ba22e4c7; retrieved 2026-09-15T15:36:06.775Z.