E145, en-route, near London ON Canada, 2014

E145, en-route, near London ON Canada, 2014

Summary

On 5 September 2014, the crew of an Embraer 145 encountered a more continuous area of convective activity en-route than expected. When it became impossible to see a way to continue through it, the aircraft commander requested, received and actioned flight path advice from the Company flight-following function. This led to the penetration of a mature thunderstorm and several minutes of severe turbulence with aircraft control lost and only regained upon exit from the storm. The Investigation found that the weather avoidance advice was based on an inappropriate source and that following it was an inappropriate command decision.

Description

On 5 September 2014, an Embraer 145LR (N16954) being operated by ExpressJet Airlines on a scheduled domestic passenger flight from Grand Rapids MI to Newark NJ as flight 4538 and en-route over Canada in day VMC entered a large and active thunderstorm at FL370 and the flight crew lost control in IMC and severe turbulence for around 3 minutes during which 4,000 feet of altitude were lost and Mmo was exceeded. None of the 29 occupants were injured and the aircraft was subsequently found not to have been damaged.

Investigation

The event was not reported to the Canadian TSB by the aircraft operator or the pilot in command of the aircraft but it was so reported the following day by the Toronto ACC, which had been working the aircraft at the time. Neither the CVR nor FDR were quarantined after the flight and relevant data on the CVR were therefore overwritten. The Investigation was subsequently provided with a download FDR data which included the flight under investigation.

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