Created Friday, Jul 28th 2023 23:54Z, last updated Friday, Jul 19th 2024 19:40Z
An Allegiant Airbus A320-200, registration N229NV performing flight
G4-485 from Fort Lauderdale,FL to Lexington,KY (USA), was cleared to climb to FL230 and was enroute at FL230 about 140nm north of Fort Lauderdale when the crew received a TCAS resolution advisory to climb due to a business jet at the same altitude, who received a TCAS resolution advisory to descend. The A320 climbed about 700 feet rapidly before returning to the assigned FL230 causing two flight attendants to fall backwards resulting in an injury to one of the flight attendants. The flight crew declared emergency due to the injured cabin crew and returned to Fort Lauderdale for a safe landing about 40 minutes after the TCAS climb.
The FAA reported: "AIRCRAFT DECLARED A CREW MEDICAL EMERGENCY DUE TO INJURED FLIGHT ATTENDANT, FORT LAUDERDALE, FL.", the flight attendant received a serious injury. The FAA later reported that the aircraft, a business jet and the A320 at the same altitude, received TCAS alerts and were both turned by the air traffic controller.
The aircraft was able to depart again about 4:50 hours after landing and reached Lexington with a delay of about 6:50 hours.
On Oct 4th 2023 the NTSB reported they have opened a category 4 investigation into the occurrence, one cabin crew received serious injuries. No preliminary report, only a final report will be released.
On Jul 19th 2024 the NTSB released their final report concluding the probable causes of the accident were:
The flight crew’s abrupt change in pitch in response to a traffic collision advisory system resolution advisory that resulted in a serious injury to a flight attendant.
The NTSB analysed:
Allegiant Air flight 485 flight crew preformed a climb maneuver in response to a Traffic Collison Avoidance System (TCAS) advisory resulting in a serious injury to a flight attendant onboard. Flight 485 was at flight level (FL) 230 [23,000 feet] and enroute to the Blue Grass Airport (LEX), Lexington, Kentucky when the event occurred.
The flight crew reported they had been on a generally northern course since their departure from Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport (FLL) when they received a heading of 100 degrees from air traffic control (ATC). Jacksonville Center closed the airspace to the North in response to severe weather in the area. Minutes later, the flight crew reported receiving a TCAS traffic advisory (TA) followed immediately by a resolution advisory (RA) to which the flight crew followed the given climb rate, to avoid another aircraft in their path. After the flight crew returned to FL230, they received a call from the lead flight attendant to report that the unexpected climb caused one flight attendant to be “knocked to the ground” and was injured.
ATC declared an emergency for the flight after the flight crew reported the injury of the flight attendant and the flight subsequently diverted back to FLL due to significant weather over central Florida.
Related Flight:
G4485,
Allegiant Air News
