A320, en-route, east of Miyazaki Japan, 2018

A320, en-route, east of Miyazaki Japan, 2018

Summary

On 27 August 2018, an Airbus A320 level at FL 300 encountered unanticipated turbulence which caused one of the cabin crew to fall and sustain what was belatedly diagnosed as spinal fracture. The Investigation found that the aircraft had flown through the decaying wake vortex from an almost opposite direction Boeing 747-400F at FL310 which had been observed to cross what was subsequently found to be 13.8 nm ahead of the A320 prior to the latter crossing its track 1 minute 40 seconds later that coincided with a very brief period in which vertical acceleration varied between +0.19g and +1.39g.

Description

On 27 August 2018, an Airbus A320 (JA14VA) being operated by Vanilla Air on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Kansai to Amami as JW873 (callsign JA14VA) and in the cruise at FL300 in day VMC was suddenly subjected to a short period of turbulence in otherwise smooth flight conditions during which one of the cabin crew fell without apparently sustaining any injury beyond possible bruising. Subsequent to the completion of the remainder of the flight duty that day, a sustained pain without improving trend caused her to undergo a hospital examination that identified a minor spinal fracture which led to an accident investigation being opened.

Investigation

After receiving notification of the accident seven days after it had occurred, the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) commenced an Investigation. By the time of notification, relevant data on the FDR and CVR had been overwritten but QAR and recorded ATC radar data were available.

It was noted that the 41 year-old Captain, who had been PF for the investigated flight, had a total of 6,787 flying hours including 4,544 hours on type and that the 27 year-old First Officer had a total of 1,275 flying hours including 992 hours on type.

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