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A B767-300 captain declared an emergency; deviated off track and descended from FL350 to FL310 in order to exit an area of severe turbulence.
| Attributes | |
| ACN | 862471 |
| Time | |
| Date | 200911 |
| Local Time Of Day | 1801-2400 |
| Place | |
| Locale Reference | ZZZ.ARTCC |
| State Reference | US |
| Aircraft 1 | |
| Make Model Name | B767-300 and 300 ER |
| Operating Under FAR Part | Part 121 |
| Flight Phase | Cruise |
| Route In Use | Oceanic |
| Flight Plan | IFR |
| Person 1 | |
| Function | Pilot Flying Captain |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 200 Flight Crew Total 20000 Flight Crew Type 350 |
| Person 2 | |
| Function | Pilot Not Flying |
| Experience | Flight Crew Last 90 Days 225 Flight Crew Total 11000 Flight Crew Type 3000 |
| Events | |
| Anomaly | Deviation - Altitude Excursion From Assigned Altitude Deviation - Procedural Clearance Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence |
Narrative:
We were at FL310 with moderate turbulence with the seatbelt sign on and the flight attendants seated. We requested a climb to FL350. When we climbed to FL350 we realized that the turbulence was much worse than the moderate we were experiencing at FL310 and we figured it was severe. The copilot tried to get a call in to the HF radio operator to get lower back to FL310 but no use; they were busy saying standby. Since there was a chance of someone getting hurt I instructed the copilot to declare an emergency and we decided to go off track and go lower on our own. We had a request in for FL310 but couldn't wait. We paralleled our track by 10 miles and descended back to FL310 and when we leveled off the clearance came for us to descend to FL310. There was no damage to the airplane as far as we knew and after checking with the purser found that the airplane was in good order and there were no injuries.
Original NASA ASRS Text
Title: A B767-300 Captain declared an emergency; deviated off track and descended from FL350 to FL310 in order to exit an area of severe turbulence.
Narrative: We were at FL310 with moderate turbulence with the seatbelt sign on and the flight attendants seated. We requested a climb to FL350. When we climbed to FL350 we realized that the turbulence was much worse than the moderate we were experiencing at FL310 and we figured it was severe. The copilot tried to get a call in to the HF radio operator to get lower back to FL310 but no use; they were busy saying standby. Since there was a chance of someone getting hurt I instructed the copilot to declare an emergency and we decided to go off track and go lower on our own. We had a request in for FL310 but couldn't wait. We paralleled our track by 10 miles and descended back to FL310 and when we leveled off the clearance came for us to descend to FL310. There was no damage to the airplane as far as we knew and after checking with the Purser found that the airplane was in good order and there were no injuries.
Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site as of April 2012 and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.