FLIGHT FINDINGSAVIATION OCCURRENCE MAP
Back to map

All Nippon Airways Flight NH106

8 Jan 2025 · Ojai, CA, United States

Boeing 787 9 · Accident: turbulence encounter on approach

From Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)

Report a problem

Event

NTSB case
DCA25LA102
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
Event fatalities
Unknown
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

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
JA892A
Onboard fatalities
Unknown
Route
From Tokyo Haneda International Airport (HND), TokyoTo Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), Los Angeles, CA
Aircraft age
About 8 years (built 2017)
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 129: Foreign
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
Approach
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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.

NTSB narrative

All Nippon Airways flight NH106, encountered severe turbulence during descent through FL140 (14,000 feet) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX). As a result, multiple flight attendants (FAs) sustained minor injuries, and one FA sustained a serious injury. Prior to initiating descent, the flight crew obtained the Automatic Terminal Information Service (ATIS) for LAX, which did not include any turbulence advisories. Approximately 20 minutes before landing, air traffic control (ATC) advised the crew of light to moderate turbulence in the area. The pilot monitoring considered querying ATC for altitude-specific turbulence information, but the captain instructed the crew to illuminate the seat belt sign and have the FAs prepare the cabin for landing. While descending from FL200 to FL170, the aircraft encountered light turbulence. At approximately FL140, about 15 minutes before landing, the flight encountered two brief turbulence events, which the captain described as “moderate” and “moderate plus.” Following these encounters, the pilot monitoring recommended that FAs be seated, and the captain agreed. After the public announcement was made the flight crew was informed that multiple FAs had sustained injuries. During the initial turbulence encounter, the L3 FA was holding the lavatory handle for support. After the turbulence subsided, she proceeded to her assigned seat and began fastening her seat belt when the second turbulence encounter occurred. She was subsequently thrown into the air and landed on the cabin floor, impacting her buttocks. Upon returning to Japan, she was diagnosed with a serious injury.

Figure 1. Location of cabin attendant that sustained a serious injury. At the time of the turbulence encounter, no convective Significant Meteorological Information (SIGMETs) were active. However, other advisories—including SIGMETs, Airmen’s Meteorological Information (AIRMETs), and Pilot Reports (PIREPs)—indicated moderate to severe turbulence in the vicinity of the flight path.

Probable cause

An encounter with turbulence during descent, which resulted in a serious injury to a flight attendant.

Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset

Sources

NTSB record DCA25LA102
Event ID
20250127199608
Case number
DCA25LA102
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, 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: 6449f761804e19f465aa332ae440225160a68e36e38df42bb8de8eba8225aedb; retrieved 2026-09-16T19:37:36.416Z.