NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA21LA176
Registry · N156AN
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
AIRBUS A321-231
Year of manufacture
2016 · 5 years old at event
TCDS
A28NM · AIRBUS SAS
Engine
IAE V2533-A5
Seats / Engines
379 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20160226
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A0E086
Registrant of record
AMERICAN AIRLINES INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
an inadvertent encounter with convective turbulence.
Factual narrative
On July 4th, 2021, at 10:41 pm eastern daylight time, American Airlines flight 2206, an Airbus A321, N156AN, encountered turbulence during descent to Miami International Airport (KMIA), Miami, Florida. Of the 181 passengers and crew onboard, one flight attendant was seriously injured. The airplane was not damaged. The regularly scheduled passenger flight was operating under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 121 from the Dallas-Fort Worth International airport (KDFW), Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, to KMIA. According to the flight crew, they observed convective activity that they would descend through during the approach and informed the lead flight attendant to prepare the cabin early and to take their seats. The weather radar was on, and the seatbelt sign was illuminated. Shortly after this, as they descended through between 12,000-10,000 feet, the airplane passed through the tops of a small cumulus buildup and the flight experienced moderate turbulence. When the turbulence was encountered, the #3 flight attendant (FA), located in the aft galley, was thrown into the air and was seriously injured after striking the floor hard. The FAs informed the flight crew of the injury and the captain requested paramedics meet the flight at the gate. After landing, the flight attendant was transported to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured compressed vertebra. 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-Convective turbulence-Effect on personnel
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2021_DCA21LA176.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 ↗