NTSB CAROL · Event
Event DCA25LA047
Registry · N753AN
FAA Aircraft Registry record.
Make / Model
BOEING 777-223
Year of manufacture
2001 · 23 years old at event
Engine
ROLLS-ROYC RB-211 SERIES
Seats / Engines
440 seats · 2 engines
Last airworthiness date
20010524
ADS-B equipped
Yes — Mode-S AA253B
Registrant of record
AMERICAN AIRLINES INC
Source: FAA Aircraft Registry (releasable master file).
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The airplane’s encounter with unanticipated turbulence during cruise flight, which resulted in serious injury to one passenger who was not seated.
Factual narrative
American Airlines flight 930 encountered unanticipated moderate turbulence while operating from São Paulo/Guarulhos International Airport (SBGR), São Paulo, Brazil to Miami International Airport (KMIA), Miami, Florida on a scheduled international passenger flight. During preflight preparations, the flight crew noted an area of weather instability north of São Paulo. The captain was the pilot monitoring, and the first officer was the pilot flying with another first officer on rest break. The seat belt sign was illuminated, and the flight crew briefed the cabin crew regarding potential turbulence. At 38,000 feet (FL380), after clearing the previously identified weather instability, the airplane encountered two successive jolts of moderate turbulence lasting about five seconds. The flight attendants (FAs) reported service was concluding and they were not seated at that time. Several FAs and one passenger sustained minor injuries when service items and carts became airborne. One passenger found on the floor near door 3L was seriously injured. After coordinating with the cabin crew and consulting with an onboard physician, the flight crew declared a medical emergency and returned to SBGR. The captain assumed the pilot flying duties and conducted an overweight landing on runway 10L without further incident. 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-Clear air turbulence-Effect on personnel
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2024_DCA25LA047.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 ↗