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Delta Air Lines Boeing 757 232 accident

10 Jan 2014 · Atlanta, GA, United States

Boeing 757 232 · Accident: turbulence encounter en route

From Jacksonville International Airport (KJAX) to Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (KATL)

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Event

NTSB case
DCA14CA036
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
Instrument Meteorological Cond

Boeing 757 232

Aircraft type
Boeing 757
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
N687DL
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Jacksonville International Airport (KJAX), Jacksonville, FLTo Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (KATL), Atlanta, GA
Aircraft age
About 16 years (built 1998)
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 · descent
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
Turbulence encounter
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

  • Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena

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

NTSB narrative

The flight crew was anticipating light turbulence during the descent and notified the cabin and selected the fasten seatbelt sign on prior to descending from 28,000 feet. During the descent, as the flight attendants (FA) were still preparing the cabin for arrival, the turbulence increased to a level the crew categorized as moderate.

During this time, while trying to get to her seat, a FA was thrown against the 3L door and fell to the floor injuring her right ankle. The FA could not complete her duties and was assisted into the last row of seats. Another FA informed the flight crew who arranged for paramedics to meet the airplane.

The FA was transported to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken right tibia in two places.

Probable cause

unexpected encounter with convective turbulence while the flight attendants were preparing for arrival.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DCA14CA036
Event ID
20140110X15754
Case number
DCA14CA036
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: 158d418671afbf89391d740fad242993f7b633dcf49d873973d6d25869a88de9; retrieved 2026-09-15T23:15:13.151Z.