World Atlantic Airlines Flight 261
McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co MD 83 · Accident: turbulence encounter en route
From Abel Santamaria International Airport (MUSC) to Miami International Airport (MIA)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA25LA312
- 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
McDonnell Douglas Aircraft Co MD 83
- Aircraft type
- McDonnell Douglas MD-83
- 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
- N805WA
- Operator
- World Atlantic Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Abel Santamaria International Airport (MUSC), Santa ClaraTo Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, FL
- Aircraft age
- About 29 years (built 1996)
- 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 as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
World Atlantic Airlines flight 261, from Abel Santamaría Airport (SNU), Santa Clara, Cuba, encountered turbulence during descent into Miami International Airport (MIA), Miami, Florida. As a result, one flight attendant (FA) sustained a serious injury. According to the captain, they were descending through 12,000 ft when they observed an isolated cloud formation and requested a deviation from air traffic control (ATC). While maneuvering between clouds, the airplane encountered about two seconds of severe turbulence. At the time of the encounter, the fasten seat belt sign was illuminated. After the turbulence encounter, the flight crew contacted the senior FA and were initially informed that there were no injuries and the cabin was normal. Shortly after, the senior FA called the flight crew to advise that one of the FAs had fallen during the turbulence and was experiencing dizziness. The flight continued to MIA and landed without incident. While taxiing to the gate, the senior FA contacted the flight crew and reported that the injured FA was experiencing pain on her right side. The flight crew requested paramedics to meet the flight at the gate. The injured FA was transported to the hospital and diagnosed with a concussion and rib contusion. The FA was hospitalized for four days before being released. According to the injured FA, she was seated near the galley when the fasten seat belt sign was illuminated. She was attempting to fasten her seat belt when the airplane encountered turbulence. She stated that she felt a heavy impact and lost consciousness. When she regained consciousness, her colleagues were there and she felt pain on her right side. After the accident, World Atlantic Airlines issued a safety bulletin to all inflight personnel that emphasized the importance of adherence to procedures when encountering severe turbulence, including briefings on expected turbulence during arrival and descent.
Probable cause
An encounter with convective turbulence during descent that resulted in a serious injury to a flight attendant.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA25LA312
- Event ID
- 20250902200930
- Case number
- DCA25LA312
- 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 local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: f9c73785457cc9e74fc860b2983328673877291d564617bda55373f001fad61b; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:18:06.996Z.