Individually Owned: 150,657
Corporate Owned: 137,281
Honolulu International Airport
Aircraft Accident/Incident Report
Ni'ihau, Hawaii 96769
Thursday, February 10, 2011 8:30 HST
NTSB Narrative Summary Released at Completion of Accident
As the airplane descended from about 38,000 feet, the flight crew observed that they had a tailwind of between 60 and 70 knots and that cumulonimbus clouds were ahead of the airplane. Descending through 34,668 feet, the tailwind suddenly decreased and the indicated speed of the airplane quickly increased. The captain activated the speed brakes and disengaged the autopilot. Subsequently, the airplane began to slow. As the captain was slowly retarding the speed brakes, the airplane started to climb and the captain slowly lowered the nose of the airplane. The digital flight data recorder revealed that over a 30-second period the airplane’s vertical acceleration decreased to 0.75 g, then increased to 2.33 g, decreased to 0.05 g, then stabilized at 0.9 g (normal). During the event, one passenger broke her femur; two cabin attendants and four passengers received minor injuries. The airplane was not damaged.
Convective activity was located immediately west of where the event occurred, likely blocking the wind flow and causing a wave-like disturbance downstream of the storms, which would result in unanticipated convectively induced turbulence. Since the event occurred in clear air downstream of the cumulonimbus clouds, the airplane likely encountered an undulating turbulence under a strong temperature inversion and strong windshear. The turbulence was not predicted by weather forecasters.
NTSB Probable Cause Narrative
An encounter with unanticipated convectively induced windshear and turbulence during descent.
Event Information
| Type of Event | Accident |
| Event Date | 2/10/2011 |
| Event Day of the Week | Thursday |
| Time of Event | 830 |
| Event Time Zone | Hawaii Standard Time |
| Event City | Ni'ihau |
| Event State | HAWAII |
| Event Country | -- |
| Zipcode of the event site | 96769 |
| Event Date Year | 2011 |
| Event Date Month | 2 |
| MidAir Collision Indicator | No |
| On Ground Collision occurred ? | No |
| Event Location Latitude | 214324N |
| Event Location Longitude | 1601519W |
| Event Location Airport | Honolulu International Airport |
| Event Location Nearest Airport ID | PHNL |
| Indicates whether the acc/inc occurred off or on an airport | Off Airport/Airstrip |
| Distance from airport in statute miles | 152 |
| Degrees magnetic from airport | -- |
| Airport Elevation | 13 |
| Weather Briefing Completeness | -- |
| Investigator's weather source | Weather Observation Facility |
| Time of the weather observation | 853 Hawaii Standard Time |
| Direction of event from weather observation facility (degrees) | 254 |
| Weather Observation Facility ID | PHLI |
| Elevation of weather observation facility | 153 |
| Distance of event from weather observation facility (units?) | 32 |
| Time Zone of the weather observation | HST |
| Lighting Conditions | Day |
| Lowest Ceiling Height | 2800 |
| Lowest Non-Ceiling Height | 1300 |
| Sky/Lowest/Cloud Conditions | Scattered |
| Sky Condition for Lowest Ceiling | Broken |
| Visibility Runway Visual Range (Feet) | -- |
| Visibility Runway Visual Value (Statute Miles) | -- |
| Visibility (Statute Miles) | 10 |
| Air Temperature at event time (in degrees celsius) | 22 |
| Dew Point at event time (in degress fahrenheit) | 21 |
| Wind Direction (degrees magnetic) | 220 |
| Variable Wind Indicator | Wind direction could be determined |
| Wind Speed (knots) | 5 |
| Wind Velocity Indicator | -- |
| Wind Gust Indicator | Not Gusting |
| Wind Gust (knots) | -- |
| Altimeter Setting at event time (in. Hg) | 29.95 |
| Density Altitude (feet) | -- |
| Intensity of Precipitation | -- |
| METAR weather report | METAR PHLI 101753Z 22005KT 10SM SCT013 BKN028 OVC0 |
| Event Highest Injury | Serious |
| On Ground, Fatal Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Minor Injuries | -- |
| On Ground, Serious Injuries | -- |
| Injury Total Fatal | -- |
| Injury Total Minor | 6 |
| Injury Total None | 243 |
| Injury Total Serious | 1 |
| Injury Total All | 7 |
| Investigating Agency | Foreign |
| NTSB Docket Number (internal use) | 29610 |
| NTSB Notification Source | FAA Operations Center |
| NTSB Notification Date | -- |
| NTSB Notification Time | -- |
| Fiche Number and/or location -used to find docket information | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 1 2012 5:18PM |
| User who most recently changed record | coos |
| Basic weather conditions | Visual Meteorological Cond |
| FAA District Office | -- |
Aircraft Involved |
|
|---|---|
Aircraft #1 |
|
| Aircraft Registration Number | JA603J |
| NTSB Number | WPR11LA139 |
| Missing Aircraft Indicator | -- |
| Federal Aviation Reg. Part | Part 129: Foreign |
| Type of Flight Plan filed | IFR |
| Flight plan Was Activated? | Yes |
| Damage | None |
| Aircraft Fire | None |
| Aircraft Explosion | None |
| Aircraft Manufacturer's Full Name | BOEING |
| Aircraft Model | 767-300 |
| Aircraft Series Identifier | -- |
| Aircraft Serial Number | 32888 |
| Certified Max Gross Weight | 401000 |
| Aircraft Category | Airplane |
| Aircraft Registration Class | -- |
| Aircraft is a homebuilt? | No |
| Flight Crew Seats | 2 |
| Cabin Crew Seats | 9 |
| Passenger Seats | 253 |
| Total number of seats on the aircraft | 253 |
| Number of Engines | 2 |
| Fixed gear or retractable gear | Retractable |
| Aircraft, Type of Last Inspection | Continuous Airworthiness |
| Date of Last Inspection | Jan 27 2011 12:00AM |
| Airframe hours since last inspection | -- |
| Airframe Hours | 31822 |
| ELT Installed | Yes |
| ELT Activated | No |
| ELT Aided Location of Event Site | No |
| ELT Type | Unknown |
| Aircraft Owner Name | Dia Lavender Ltd, SMBCL Cassiopeia Co., Ltd |
| Aircraft Owner Street Address | -- |
| Aircraft Owner City | Tokyo |
| Aircraft Owner State | -- |
| Aircraft Owner Country | JA |
| Aircraft Owner Zipcode | -- |
| Operator is an individual? | No |
| Operator Name | Japan Airlines International |
| Operator Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Is Doing Business As | -- |
| Operator Address Same as Owner? | No |
| Operator Street Address | -- |
| Operator City | Tokyo |
| Operator State | -- |
| Operator Country | JA |
| Operator Zip code | -- |
| Operator Code | JALI |
| Owner has at least one certificate | Yes - certificate holder |
| Other Operator of large aircraft? | No |
| Certified for Part 133 or 137 Operation | -- |
| Operator Certificate Number | JACF109F |
| Indicates whether an air carrier operation was scheduled or not | Scheduled |
| Indicates Domestic or International Flight | International |
| Operator carrying Pax/Cargo/Mail | Passenger Only |
| Type of Flying (Per_Bus / Primary) | -- |
| Second Pilot on Board | Yes |
| Departure Point Same as Event | No |
| Departure Airport Code | NRT |
| Departure City | Narita |
| Departure State | -- |
| Departure Country | JA |
| Departure Time | 1216 |
| Departure Time Zone | UTC |
| Destination Same as Local Flt | -- |
| Destination Airport Code | HNL |
| Destination City | Honolulu |
| Destination State | HI |
| Destination Country | USA |
| Specific Phase of Flight | -- |
| Report sent to ICAO? | -- |
| Evacuation occurred | -- |
| Date of most recent change to record | Feb 1 2012 5:18PM |
| User who most recently changed record | coos |
| Since inspection or accident | Time of Accident |
| Event Location Runway Number and Location | N/A |
| Runway Length | -- |
| Runway Width | -- |
| Sight Seeing flight | No |
| Air Medical Flight | No |
| Medical Flight | -- |