NTSB CAROL · Event
Event WPR20CA069
Aircraft involved
Probable cause & findings
The airplane’s encounter with turbulence during descent, which resulted in a serious injury to a flight attendant.
Factual narrative
According to the flight crew, during the descent for landing, the flight was approaching about 16,000 ft, when air traffic control informed them of reports of moderate to severe turbulence. The flight crew immediately attempted to contact the flight attendant, to inform her to take her seat, but were unsuccessful. As the airplane descended through about 12,000 ft, the airplane entered moderate turbulence. After the encounter, the captain asked the first officer to check on the flight attendant and passengers. The first officer subsequently informed the captain that the flight attendant had fallen and was injured, after which he assisted and secured her into a seat. The airplane was not damaged. The flight attendant sustained a serious injury during the event. According to the flight crew, during the descent for landing, the airplane was approaching about 16,000 ft when air traffic control informed them of reports of moderate-to-severe turbulence. The flight crew immediately attempted several times to contact the flight attendant to inform her to take her seat, but they were unsuccessful. As the airplane descended through about 12,000 ft, it encountered moderate turbulence. After the encounter, the captain asked the first officer to check on the flight attendant and passengers. The first officer subsequently informed the captain that the flight attendant had fallen and was injured and that he assisted her and then secured her into a seat. The airplane was not damaged. The flight attendant sustained a serious injury. 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-Clear air turbulence-Effect on personnel - C
Verbatim from NTSB's published report. Source file
NTSB_2020_WPR20CA069.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 ↗