Spirit Airlines Flight 2045
Airbus A321 231 · Accident: turbulence encounter en route
From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (KDTW) to Harry Reid International Airport (KLAS)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA25LA341
- 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
- Unknown
Airbus A321 231
- Aircraft type
- Airbus A321
- 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
- N670NK
- Operator
- Spirit Airlines
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport (KDTW), Detroit, MITo Harry Reid International Airport (KLAS), Las Vegas, NV
- Aircraft age
- About 9 years (built 2016)
- 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
Spirit Airlines flight 2045 encountered turbulence during descent into Harry Reid International Airport (LAS), Las Vegas, Nevada, causing injury to two flight attendants (FAs). The encounter occurred while the FAs were preparing the cabin for landing. According to the flight crew, while flying the CHOWW4 arrival into LAS, they observed cumulous clouds along their flight path but did not observe any returns on the weather radar, nor on their electronic flight bag (EFB) weather application. In addition, there were no pilot reports (PIREPS) for the area. Due to the cumulous clouds in the distance, they decided it would be safer to seat the flight attendants and passengers early. At approximately 22,000 feet, the flight crew turned ON the fasten seat belt sign and the captain communicated to the lead FA they might encounter turbulence. The lead FA informed the flight crew that they had already conducted passenger briefings and were seated. While descending through 17,000 feet, the airplane penetrated a cloud and encountered approximately 3 seconds of turbulence. The flight crew reported the turbulence to air traffic control and requested to slow the airplane. At that time, the flight crew was informed that a FA in the aft cabin was injured. The flight crew coordinated with airport operations to have emergency medical personnel meet the flight at the gate. The flight continued to LAS and landed without further incident. According to the FAs, they had completed trash pickup and the injured FA elected to use the lavatory prior to initial descent. While in the aft lavatory, the FA heard an announcement from the flight crew but did not hear the announcement clearly. While standing in the lavatory, the airplane encountered turbulence and the FA fell on the floor, injured her leg, and was unable to stand. The injured FA was assisted to their jumpseat and evaluated by an onboard medical professional. The medical professional sat on the floor in the galley near the injured FA during landing. After arriving at the gate, the injured FA was transported to the hospital and was diagnosed with a fractured ankle bone. One additional FA fell during the event and was transported to the hospital; they were released with minor injuries. No other injuries were reported and there was no damage to the airplane.
Probable cause
The airplane’s encounter with turbulence during descent resulting in a serious injury to a flight attendant who was standing at the time of the encounter.
Verbatim NTSB analysis and probable cause from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record DCA25LA341
- Event ID
- 20251003201780
- Case number
- DCA25LA341
- 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 local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: 588b1b1872121813b303b7fc7e9bc2921619c6603056162daddbcf4233a96bcf; retrieved 2026-09-16T20:25:33.384Z.