NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA19CA206
Registry · N328FR
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
AIRBUS A320-251N
Year of manufacture
2018 · 1 years old at event
TCDS
A28NM · AIRBUS SAS
Engine
CFM INTL LEAP-1A26
Seats / Engines
190 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20180314
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A38C95
Registrant of record
BANK OF UTAH TRUSTEE
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
an encounter with mountain wave turbulence.
Factual narrative
On August 27, 2019, at 0650 am mountain daylight time, Frontier Airlines as flight 461, an Airbus A320, N328FR, encountered turbulence while on descent to the Denver International Airport (KDEN), Denver, Colorado. As a result of the turbulence, one flight attendant was seriously injured. There were no other injuries to the remainder of the passengers and crew onboard and the airplane was not damaged. The flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a regularly scheduled passenger flight from the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport (KMSP), Minneapolis, Minnesota to KDEN. Visual flight conditions prevailed at the time of the accident. According to the flight crew, as the flight was approaching 15,000 feet, the captain, who was the pilot monitoring, identified a single cumulus cloud in front of them with the tops at about 15,000 feet, and informed the first officer (FO) of possible turbulence. The FO reduced airspeed to 250 knots in anticipation of the turbulence and the captain advised the flight attendants to take their seats. The airplane then entered moderate turbulence for about 10 seconds. According to the flight attendants (FA), very shortly after being notified by the captain, the turbulence was encountered. The aft flight attendant was returning to her jumpseat when the turbulence occurred and she was thrown to the floor. After the encounter, she was helped back to her jumpseat by another FA and they informed the flight crew. The flight was met at the gate by medical personnel and the FA was transported to the hospital and diagnosed with a broken left ankle. An NTSB Weather Study indicated likely mountain wave conditions between 11,000 and 14,000 feet with cloud formation near the accident site and points eastward, and cloud tops near 15,000 ft. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database Retrieved: 2026-02-12
NTSB Findings
Hierarchical cause / factor breakdown from the FAA bulk avdata database. Each finding tagged C (Cause) or F (Factor).
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Turbulence-Terrain induced turbulence-Effect on personnel
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2019_DCA19CA206.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
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Related research
What the literature says.
Academic papers and agency reports matching this event's aircraft type or causal vocabulary (turbulence). Sourced from NASA NTRS, NTSB Safety Studies, FAA CAMI, AOPA Air Safety Institute, Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons, arXiv, and the Semantic Scholar academic graph.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2015 · Journal article (JAAER)
Is “Green Dot” Always the Optimum Engines-Out Glide Speed on the Airbus A320 Aircraft?
The dual-engine failure checklist of the Airbus A320 states that the optimum airspeed at which the aircraft can be flown is the “green dot” speed when an engine restart is considered impossible.
- arXiv 2026 · arXiv preprint
Direct Numerical Simulations of Ice-Ocean Boundary Turbulence
Turbulent heat and freshwater transport at ice-ocean interfaces controls glacier and iceberg melt rates, yet the underlying physics remains poorly constrained.
- Embry-Riddle Scholarly Commons 2025 · Journal article (JAAER)
Political Turbulence and Aviation Safety: A Cross-National Analysis of Political Stability's Effects on Aviation Accidents
To what extent does political stability affect aviation safety? This research aims to link domestic political conditions and public safety through the consideration of aviation accident frequency.
- arXiv 2025 · arXiv preprint
Explainable LiDAR 3D Point Cloud Segmentation and Clustering for Detecting Airplane-Generated Wind Turbulence
Wake vortices - strong, coherent air turbulences created by aircraft - pose a significant risk to aviation safety and therefore require accurate and reliable detection methods.
- arXiv 2024 · arXiv preprint
Does small-scale turbulence matter for ice growth in mixed-phase clouds?
Representing the glaciation of mixed-phase clouds in terms of the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process is a challenge for many weather and climate models, which tend to overestimate this process because…
- arXiv 2023 · arXiv preprint
Effects of electrostatic interaction on clustering and collision of bidispersed inertial particles in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence
In sandstorms and thunderclouds, turbulence-induced collisions between solid particles and ice crystals lead to inevitable triboelectrification.
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗