United Airlines Flight 152
Boeing 787-9 · Accident: turbulence encounter en route
From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) to Hong Kong International Airport (VHHH)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA25LA055
- 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
- 0
- 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 787-9
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 787
- 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
- N29975
- Operator
- United Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CATo Hong Kong International Airport (VHHH), Hong Kong, PO
- Aircraft age
- About 4 years (built 2020)
- 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 › Physical environment
Approximate · Coordinates from the NTSB case API, not marked as estimated; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
United Airlines flight 152 encountered moderate turbulence while descending through 10,000 feet to Hong Kong International Airport. As a result, a flight attendant (FA) sustained a serious injury. During the descent, the seatbelt sign was illuminated, and the flight crew had instructed the flight attendants to prepare for landing. The aircraft passed through a thin cloud layer at approximately 10,000 feet, followed by another cloud directly ahead. No radar returns were observed on the aircraft’s weather radar display and onboard weather applications showed no indications of an adverse ride. While passing through the top of the second cloud, the aircraft experienced about two seconds of moderate turbulence. The flight continued without further incident and landed uneventfully. After taxiing to the gate, the crew was informed that the number 4 FA was injured. At the time of the turbulence encounter, the number 4 FA was in the aft galley and was thrown to the floor, impacting her head, wrist, and buttocks. MedAire was consulted, and the FA was advised to seek medical evaluation upon arrival at the hotel. She was later transported to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with a serious injury. At the time of the turbulence encounter, there were no active forecasts indicating turbulence in the area.
Probable cause
An encounter with unexpected turbulence during descent.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA25LA055
- Event ID
- 20241211199406
- Case number
- DCA25LA055
- 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, cause areas, damage. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the UTC date the NTSB stores; the local time zone is not recorded, so the local date may differ by a day.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 89bd25146fd62207c50912f4f7895e582fea7e185850a0f2771b63f55ef8756b; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:32:05.588Z.