NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA19CA208
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
an encounter with convective turbulence during descent.
Factual narrative
On August 26, 2019, about 2037 central daylight time, Delta Airlines as flight 805, a Boeing MD-88, N911DL, encountered turbulence during descent to the Chicago O'Hare International Airport (KORD), Chicago, Illinois. Of the 152 passengers and crew onboard, one flight attendant was seriously injured and there was no damage to the airplane. The flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a regularly scheduled passenger flight from the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (KATL), Atlanta, Georgia. According to the flight crew, during initial descent, they heard reports of moderate turbulence from preceding airplanes on arrival. The captain contacted the cabin crew and informed them of the upcoming moderate turbulence and instructed them to be seated. Shortly after, while deviating around an area of weather, the airplane encountered approximately 10 to 15 seconds of moderate turbulence. According to cabin crew statements, they had finished service and had stowed everything they needed to in the galley. The captain notified them that turbulence "was coming in three to five minutes." The aft flight attendant was returning to his jumpseat when the turbulence was encountered and was unable to maintain his balance and fell to the floor. After the turbulence had subsided the injured flight attendant was able to make it back to his jumpseat and immobilize his ankle. The flight attendants informed the flight crew of the injury and medical personnel met the airplane at the gate. A subsequent x-ray indicated the flight attendant sustained a fractured distal fibula. On August 26, 2019, about 2037 central daylight time, Delta Airlines as flight 805, a Boeing MD-88, N911DL, encountered turbulence during descent to the Chicago O'Hare International Airport (KORD), Chicago, Illinois. Of the 152 passengers and crew onboard, one flight attendant was seriously injured and there was no damage to the airplane. The flight was operating under 14 CFR Part 121 as a regularly scheduled passenger flight from the Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport (KATL), Atlanta, Georgia. According to the flight crew, during initial descent, they heard reports of moderate turbulence from preceding airplanes on arrival. The captain contacted the cabin crew and informed them of the upcoming moderate turbulence and instructed them to be seated. Shortly after, while deviating around an area of weather, the airplane encountered approximately 10 to 15 seconds of moderate turbulence. According to cabin crew statements, they had finished service and had stowed everything they needed to in the galley. The captain notified them that turbulence "was coming in three to five minutes." The aft flight attendant was returning to his jumpseat when the turbulence was encountered and was unable to maintain his balance and fell to the floor. After the turbulence had subsided the injured flight attendant was able to make it back to his jumpseat and immobilize his ankle. The flight attendants informed the flight crew of the injury and medical personnel met the airplane at the gate. A subsequent x-ray indicated the flight attendant sustained a fractured distal fibula. 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).
- C Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Turbulence-Convective turbulence-Effect on personnel - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2019_DCA19CA208.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.
- 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.
- SKYbrary (Eurocontrol) 2023 · SKYbrary article
Wake Vortex Turbulence — SKYbrary Knowledge Base
SKYbrary wake vortex turbulence comprehensive article — generation mechanics, dissipation factors, separation standards (ICAO LIGHT/MEDIUM/HEAVY/SUPER + recategorisation RECAT-EU).
Browse the full corpus — academia portal ↗