Turbulence event over AK on a 747-400 IAD to NRT. Other reports say one pax sustained a broken leg but the flight pressed to destination. Yikes!



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Sixteen people aboard a U.S. passenger aircraft were injured Saturday morning after it ran into turbulence over Anchorage, Ala., while it was traveling from Washington D.C. to Narita, police and air transport authorities said, according to Kyodo news.

Turbulence hit the Boeing 747-400 United Airlines flight 897 at 10:55 a.m. local time, when the aircraft, carrying 264 people, was trying to descend to an altitude of 30,200 feet from 31,800 feet, according to the airport office of the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry.


The plane ran into turbulence at an altitude of 31,500 feet.
Later, the aircraft landed safely at Narita at around 3:45 p.m., according to the airport office.


Although the airline initially alerted fire crew members that 17 people were injured, it was later found that the number was 16, the authorities said.
The 16 people were rushed to hospitals by helicopters and other transportation means, police said.


The airliner departed from Dulles International Airport at around 2:40 a.m. Saturday, Japan time.


A 50-year-old university professor from Fukuoka who was aboard the flight told Kyodo News, "The aircraft was jolted vehemently over Alaska twice or so about seven hours before its arrival. Many passengers were tossed from their seats, bumping into the ceiling."


Since the aircraft is registered in the United States and the accident took place outside Japanese territorial airspace, U.S. authorities will look into the case.


The captain of the aircraft did not alert air traffic controllers at Narita airport of the accident or declare that the aircraft was in a state of emergency, and the controllers obtained the information by a call from Narita International Airport Corp., the authorities said.
16 Injured From Turbulence on United Airlines Flight to Japan - International News | News of the World | Middle East News | Europe News - FOXNews.com

 

Injuries over Alaska and they continue to Japan? Things that make you go "Hmmmm".

 

I was thinking the same thing - "Hmmmmm"

 

Id like to give the crew the benefit of the doubt, but on its face that sounds INSANE. It turns out to be an accident because of broken bones and the flight continues 7 hours? Im sure they didnt know the specifics, but it would seem that plus or minus 15 flight attendants and 4 pilots would discuss the need to treat injured passengers in Anchorage. It reminds me of that IAD departure a few months ago that didnt have all flight attendants on board and they decided to continue on until being ordered to return. Id like to hear the rationale behind this decision before hanging the crew. I just pray it had nothing to do with dumping fuel, crew rest, inconvenience or any non-safety related rationalizations.

 

We all know that what we read online and in the papers has to be taken with a large grain of salt. The story says that the aircraft was descending from 31,800 feet to 30,200 feet. This tells me that they were flying in an area of the world that uses meters for altimetry. This is normally a polar route, so they were probably in Magadan control airspace, which could put them closer to NRT than ANK, but in any case not over Alaska. I notice that the time is quoted as 10:55 AM local time, but I am absolutely sure that nobody on the airplane had his watch on actual local time for the place that they were over, so we don't know what the time reference really means. I think that the seven hours before landing estimate from the passenger may be overstating the time airborne after the turbulence encounter. If we ASSUME (yes, I know) that 10:55 AM local time means NRT time since that is the local time quoted for the takoff from IAD, then it was only 3:50 from the turbulence encounter to on the ground at NRT. It would certainly make sense to me to continue to NRT.

Joe

 

Maybe. But I do a similar route all the time. 7 hours out would be dead center Alaska. Those altitudes also dont sound like the Magadan conversions off the top of my head either. I would agree that I would not land in Russia for a non life threatening incident. Im sure we will find out shortly. With 20 crewmembers, the facts will probably come out soon.

 

How much you wanna bet that the seat belt sign was on?

 

Yup, and the ASAP forms were filled out before they landed at NRT....

 

The flight was UA897 of the 19th (arrived in NRT on the 20th), it looks like the it flew right over ANC

The rest of the routing here: FlightAware > United Air Lines #897 > 19-Feb-2010 > KIAD-RJAA

Saturday's flight is closer to polar routing tracking north of Barrow.

I never miss an opportunity to stop at the ABC, the debrief should be interesting.

 

I would be willing to be the metric altitude is from this story being taken from the Japanese news reports where they would have reported heights in meters. That coupled with a reporter that knows nothing about aviation and voila.

The Japanese news is reporting they continued for almost 7 hours and the turbulence occurred over Anchorage. I parked just across the ramp from them yesterday and there were more ambulances than one could count. The news also reported some people were flown to hospitals by helicopter, no emergency was declared and ATC was not advised of any injuries inflight.