2022-03 · NASA ASRS report 1882604
Air carrier flight crew reported encountering severe turbulence and momentary loss of control. Passengers were injured so the flight diverted to the nearest suitable airport.
Initially on course to ZZZ; we made a deviation around convective activity; approximately 30 miles to the south just after passing ZZZZZ. After clearing the weather; we determined that we were safe to continue direct to ZZZ2 [VOR]. After entering IMC; we had started picking up light chop; we dialed the speed back to turbulence penetration speed just in case of any worsening conditions. There were no reports of any adverse ride conditions; or convective activity in our path according to ATC. With the radar about 0.5 degrees down; It was not painting anything insidious or anything to raise any alarms; so we continued; as the most we saw was a little bit of radar return in GREEN. After. Entering IMC; we encountered severe turbulence; which lasted approximately 90 seconds. We lost around 800 feet; uncontrolled bank around 45 degrees; and an over speed of around 10 kts. After stabilizing the aircraft; immediate notification was made to ATC; and we assessed the situation in the cabin. After speaking to the flight attendants; and understanding the state of the passengers; it was determined that the best course of action was to execute a diversion to the nearest suitable airport; which was ZZZ1. We made a successful diversion to ZZZ1. After getting into the gate and dealing with the maintenance issues; we then realized that we had done an overweight landing; approximately 1000 lbs overweight. The touchdown was smooth; no hard landing occurred.
We were at FL340 heading across the gulf from ZZZ1 to ZZZ. About 45 min into the flight we were coming up on some convective activity and shortly after ZZZZZ requested a deviation to the south. We offset ourselves about 20 miles south of course and were cleared direct ZZZ2 [VOR] when able. As we began the offset the seatbelt sign was turned on and not long after the Flight Attendants (FA) were directed to take their jump seats. When the radar seemed to show a good line to ZZZ2 [VOR] (on a -:.5/-.75 tilt) we proceeded direct. About 20 mi southeast of ZZZZZ1 we encountered turbulence that kicked the autopilot off at which time I took the aircraft. We think the encounter lasted 60-90 seconds during which we lost 800 ft of altitude and hit 45 degrees of bank. During the entire encounter there were no radar returns indicated (nothing to tell us which way to turn to escape) Once clear the flight attendants indicated we had three passengers that were in need of medical attention so we chose to declare an emergency and divert to ZZZ3. After landing we realized we were over max landing weight by about 1000 lbs. The landing was uneventfully executed by the First Officer (FO).
Source: NASA Aviation Safety Reporting System (public domain). Reports are voluntary submissions and are not verified by NASA.
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