FTW92LA001
1991-10-05 · LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas, United States · Serious · 1 aircraft · Status: Completed
N17402 has since been reassigned. It is now registered to a different aircraft (BOEING 737-9, built 2025), which was not involved in this event.
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
THE PILOT'S FAILURE TO SPECIFICALLY WARN THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS OF THE HAZARDOUS CONDITIONS WARNINGS. A FACTOR WAS THE TURBULENCE.
Factual narrative
A BOEING 727-200 ENCOUNTERED FORECASTED SEVERE TURBULENCE ASSOCIATED WITH A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS WHILE IN CRUISE AT FLIGHT LEVEL 350. ALL THE PASSENGERS AND FLIGHT ATTENDANTS WERE SITTING DOWN AFTER THE CAPTAIN HAD TURNED ON THE SEAT BELT SIGN UPON ENCOUNTERING SOME LIGHT CHOP. CABIN SERVICE WAS NEARLY COMPLETED. A FLIGHT ATTENDANT GOT UP TO STOW A BEVERAGE CART IN THE AFT GALLEY WHEN SEVERE TURBULENCE WAS ENCOUNTERED FOR ABOUT 60 SECONDS. A CONVECTIVE SIGMET WAS IN EFFECT FOR THEIR ROUTE OF FLIGHT AND CALLED FOR A LINE OF THUNDERSTORMS 15 MILES WIDE, WITH TOPS TO FLIGHT LEVEL 450. THE CAPTAIN DID NOT DIRECT THE FLIGHT ATTENDANTS TO SECURE THE CABIN OR DISCONTINUE SERVICE. Source: NTSB Aviation Accident Database (Pre-2008 Archive) Retrieved: 2026-02-12
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_1991_FTW92LA001.txt.
Findings + structured fields enriched from FAA avall.mdb.
Full investigation docket on
data.ntsb.gov ↗.
Search this event elsewhere
External sources are reported, not agency: signal that something happened, not fact about what happened.
- TallyAero Live Wire Aviation press
- NTSB CAROL Agency ↗
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Related research
Matched on aircraft type or causal vocabulary (turbulence, thunderstorm). All research papers
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Contractor Report (CR) An Examination of Aviation Accidents Associated with Turbulence, Wind Shear and Thunderstorm
The focal point of the study reported here was the definition and examination of turbulence, wind shear and thunderstorm in relation to aviation accidents.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Reprint (Version printed in journal) Observations of severe turbulence near thunderstorm tops
Data derived from the flight tapes of two airliners that experienced severe turbulence near thunderstorm tops are used to produce quantitative descriptions of the turbulence and its environment.
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Conference Proceedings Operational evaluation of thunderstorm penetration test flights during project Storm Hazards '80
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration is conducting a research project called Storm Hazards '80 in order to study the prediction, detectability and avoidance of the hazards of severe storm…
- NASA NTRS 2019 · Reprint (Version printed in journal) Severe Turbulence and Maneuvering from Airline Flight Records
Digital flight records from reported clear-air turbulence incidents are used to determine winds and turbulence, to determine maneuver g loads, and to analyze control problems.
- 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.
- 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.