Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Ashevelle, North Carolina 28801
Monday, November 20, 2000 16:00 EST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
At 10,000 feet msl, while maneuvering for landing, the flight encountered an area of moderate turbulence. The seat belt sign was 'ON' and the flight attendants were performing pre-landing duties. One of the flight attendants broke a bone during the turbulence event. The captain was not informed about the injured flight attendant until he walked to the back of the aircraft after arriving at the gate. According to the injured flight attendant (F/A-A), she was briefed '...only [that it]...would be a little rough getting out of Atlanta, but once we got up everything would be ok...no warning from the cockpit at all of rough air/turbulence' Both flight attendants were knocked to the floor to a sitting position, and both said the turbulence didn't stop. The injured flight attendant said, 'I...was knocked to the floor over and over...up into the service door and the passenger door; my head hit the steps and ended up on the floor flat down...I stayed on the floor...no bells were given when the aircraft was descending...the only 4 bells I heard was at landing time. Also no announcements from [the] cockpit was made when descending through 10,000 feet to the passengers because we were in 0.75 moderate turbulence at the time.' SIGMET [significant metrological] November 2, and AIRMET (Airmen Meteorological Information Network) Tango update 3, calling for a large area of moderate turbulence below 12,000 feet, were current and applicable to the flight's descent into Ashville. The company verified that both the SIGMET and AIRMET were part of the captain's weather briefing, and he had them both in his possession before departure.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
the flight encountered forecasted turbulence, which resulted in serious injury to a flight attendant. Factors in this accident were; the captain's inadequate briefing to the cabin crew; and the insufficient information about the known turbulence that would be encountered during descent.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 11/20/2000 |
| Event Day of the Week | Monday |
| Time of Event | 1600 |
| Event Time Zone | Eastern Standard Time |
| Event City | ASHEVELLE |
| Event State | NORTH CAROLINA |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 28801 |
| Event Date Year | 2000 |
| Event Date Month | 11 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | -- |
| Event Location Longitude | -- |
| Event Location Airport | |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | -- |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | -- |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | Unknown |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 1413 Eastern Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 0 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | AVL |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 2165 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 0 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | EST |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 0 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Clear |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | None |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | 0 |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | 0 |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 6 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | -8 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 310 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 14 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Unknown |
| Wind Gust (knots) | 22 |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 30 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | Unknown |
| METAR weather report | -- |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | 0 |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | 0 |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | -- |
| Injury Total None | 39 |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 1 |
| Investigating Agency | NTSB |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 977 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA SE REG COM CTR |
| NTSB Notification Date | Nov 20 2000 12:00AM |
| NTSB Notification Time | 2235 |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | IMAGE |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jul 2 2001 2:40PM |
| User who most recently changed record | MONR |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | N630AS |
| NTSB Number | MIA01LA030 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | N |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 121: Air Carrier |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | -- |
| Damage | None |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | Aerospatiale |
| Aircraft Model | ATR-72-212 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | ATR-72-212 |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 336 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 48501 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | U.S. Registered/U.S. Soil |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | -- |
| Cabin Crew Seats | -- |
| Passenger Seats | -- |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 71 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Nov 13 2000 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | 145 |
| Airframe Hours | 17787 |
| ELT Installed | No |
| ELT Activated | Unknown |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | Unknown |
| ELT Type | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Name | ATLANTIC SOUTHEAST AIRLINES |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | ATLANTA INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT |
| Aircraft Owner City | ATLANTA |
| Aircraft Owner State | GA |
| Aircraft Owner Country | |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | 30320 |
| Operator is an individual? | -- |
| Operator Name | |
| Operator Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | Yes |
| Operator Street Address | |
| Operator City | |
| Operator State | |
| Operator Country | |
| Operator Zip code | |
| Operator Code | CAA |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | Unknown |
| Operator Certificate Number | -- |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | Domestic |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger/Cargo |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | Unknown |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | ATL |
| Departure City | ATLANTA |
| Departure State | GA |
| Departure Country | |
| Departure Time | 1600 |
| Departure Time Zone | EST |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | crash at destination city |
| Destination Airport Code | AVL |
| Destination City | |
| Destination State | |
| Destination Country | |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Jun 2 2001 4:09AM |
| User who most recently changed record | dbo |
| Since inspection or accident | -- |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | 0 |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |