DCA15CA152
2015-06-28 · Boston, Massachusetts, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
Airport BOS
Current FAA registration · N335NW
- Make / Model
- AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A320-212
- Year of manufacture
- 1992 · 23 years old at event
- Engine
- CFM INTL. CFM56 SERIES (2200 hp)
- Seats / Engines
- 182 seats · 2 engines
- Last airworthiness date
- 19960821
- ADS-B equipped
- Yes — Mode-S A3A9A3
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
an inadvertent fall by the passenger while exiting the lavatory when the seat belt light was illuminated.
Factual narrative
On June 28, 2015, at 2320 eastern daylight time, a passenger fell when exiting the aft lavatory on Delta Airlines flight 2219, an Airbus A320, N335NW, while the airplane was in descent to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, Massachusetts. According to flight crew statements, the seatbelt sign was illuminated and a public address announcement had been made to remain seated prior beginning the initial descent. About 5 minutes into the descent, the autopilot was disconnected to manage the descent profile, which resulted in a "bump" in the flight path. According to flight attendant statements, about this time, a passenger fell while exiting the rear lavatory injuring her ankle. Doctors onboard assisted in applying ice and providing pain medication and the flight crew declared an emergency with air traffic control. Emergency medical personnel met the airplane at the gate and transported the passenger to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured right ankle and lower right leg. Subsequent communication from the passenger to Delta stated that she had slipped on an area of water on the floor near the lavatory door. The aircraft was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a scheduled flight from Orlando International Airport, Florida. On June 28, 2015, at 2320 eastern daylight time, a passenger fell when exiting the aft lavatory on Delta Airlines flight 2219, an Airbus A320, N335NW, while the airplane was in descent to Boston Logan International Airport (BOS), Boston, Massachusetts. According to flight crew statements, the seatbelt sign was illuminated and a public address announcement had been made to remain seated prior beginning the initial descent. About 5 minutes into the descent, the autopilot was disconnected to manage the descent profile, which resulted in a "bump" in the flight path. According to flight attendant statements, about this time, a passenger fell while exiting the rear lavatory injuring her ankle. Doctors onboard assisted in applying ice and providing pain medication and the flight crew declared an emergency with air traffic control. Emergency medical personnel met the airplane at the gate and transported the passenger to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured right ankle and lower right leg. Subsequent communication from the passenger to Delta stated that she had slipped on an area of water on the floor near the lavatory door. The aircraft was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a scheduled flight from Orlando International Airport, Florida. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
FAA avdata. C = Cause, F = Factor.
- C Personnel issues-Miscellaneous-(general)-(general)-Passenger - C
- — Aircraft-Aircraft systems-Equipment/furnishings-Passenger compartment equip-Damaged/degraded
- — Aircraft-Aircraft oper/perf/capability-Performance/control parameters-Pitch control-Related operating info
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2015_DCA15CA152.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (autopilot). All research papers
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint ROSflight 2.0: Lean ROS 2-Based Autopilot for Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
ROSflight is a lean, open-source autopilot ecosystem for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Designed by researchers for researchers, it is built to lower the barrier to entry to UAV research and acceler…
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint ROSplane 2.0: A Fixed-Wing Autopilot for Research
Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) research requires the integration of cutting-edge technology into existing autopilot frameworks.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint A Data-Driven Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft Based on Model Predictive Control
Autopilots for fixed-wing aircraft are typically designed based on linearized aerodynamic models consisting of stability and control derivatives obtained from wind-tunnel testing.
- arXiv 2022 · arXiv preprint Experimental Flight Testing of a Fault-Tolerant Adaptive Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft
This paper presents an adaptive autopilot for fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot.
- arXiv 2021 · arXiv preprint An Adaptive Digital Autopilot for Fixed-Wing Aircraft with Actuator Faults
This paper develops an adaptive digital autopilot for a fixed-wing aircraft and compares its performance with a fixed-gain autopilot.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint Robust Adaptive Sliding-Mode Control for Damaged Fixed-Wing UAVs
Many unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can remain aerodynamically flyable after sustaining structural or control surface damage, yet insufficient robustness in conventional autopilots often leads to mis…