NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA23LA107
Registry · N456FX
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
GULFSTREAM AEROSPACE GIV-X (G450)
Year of manufacture
2008 · 14 years old at event
Engine
ROLLS-ROYC TAY 611-8C
Seats / Engines
22 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20080716
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S A588F9
Registrant of record
FLEXJET LLC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
An unanticipated encounter with convective induced turbulence from developing cumulus clouds below the flight path, which produced strong updrafts and downdrafts.
Factual narrative
A Gulfstream 450 airplane encountered turbulence while in level cruise flight at 36,000 ft. and a cabin server (CS) fractured her arm and leg. The flight crew reported that after departure, while climbing through 20,000 ft, they encountered unexpected light turbulence, and the seatbelt sign was illuminated. About 30 minutes into the flight at a cruising altitude of 36,000 ft (FL360) in visual meteorological conditions with the autopilot engaged, the copilot noticed a cloud top “rising up” from under the nose of the airplane. The airplane “pitched up and down rapidly with a hard jolt;” however, the autopilot did not disengage, and the airplane returned to normal flight. A passenger notified the flight crew of injuries to the CS. At the time of the turbulence event, the CS was in the aft galley taking catering notes, when she felt a rising sensation. She attempted to get low to the floor in case turbulence was encountered. While looking over her shoulder to check on the passenger cabin, she was thrown into the air and “hurled” to the floor impacting on her left shoulder, arm, and hip. Upon being notified of the injury, the flight crew declared an emergency and diverted to Miami for medical assistance. The injured CS was transported to the hospital where she was diagnosed with a fractured left arm and multiple fractures to her left leg. At the time of the turbulence encounter there were no active convective significant meteorological information (SIGMETs), international SIGMETs, center weather advisories (CWAs) or pilot reports (PIREPs) for the area where the turbulence occurred. 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 operation
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Turbulence-Convective turbulence-Awareness of condition
- — Environmental issues-Conditions/weather/phenomena-Turbulence-Convective turbulence-Effect on personnel
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2022_DCA23LA107.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, autopilot). 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
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 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…
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