Widebody; Low Wing; 2 Turbojet Eng
Air Traffic Control Fully Certified
Air Traffic Control Time Certified In Pos 1 (yrs) 24.5
Situational Awareness
ATC Issue All Types; Inflight Event / Encounter Weather / Turbulence
Air Traffic Control Issued New Clearance; Flight Crew Became Reoriented; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Landed in Emergency Condition; Flight Crew FLC complied w / Automation / Advisory; General Physical Injury / Incapacitation
Airspace Structure; Procedure
I received a briefing to take over the sector. The last part of the briefing was that the current controller had not issued traffic to Aircraft Y at 33;000 feet and Aircraft X descending to 24;000 feet and was already below 35;000 feet. Right away; my first clearances as I took over were issuing traffic to both aircraft. Both aircraft came back and said they had TCAS resolutions. Aircraft Y was observed at 32;700 feet and Aircraft X climbed back to 35;000 feet. I do not recall that the targets ever merged. After traffic passed; I cleared Aircraft X to descend. After I transferred radio communications of Aircraft X to the next sector that sector controller advised me that Aircraft X reported moderate turbulence at 24;000 feet. Shortly after; the receiving sector controller was heard coordinating injuries encountered on Aircraft X due to the moderate turbulence. This was the first report of moderate turbulence I had heard. The sector also said that the pilot of Aircraft X made mention of an engine configuration due to the TCAS response. There was no mention of any of this from Aircraft X on my frequency.In my briefing; I was told that there was light chop between 24;000 and 26;000 feet and maybe up to 28;000 feet. This was consistent with the reports I was getting during my previous session at this sector about 40 minutes earlier. During that earlier session; I had solicited and received numerous reports of light chop between 24;000 and 26;000 feet from aircraft climbing westbound. There were no reports from the aircraft climbing out eastbound. I did not get any reports of any chop from any aircraft in the area that Aircraft X was traversing.
Aircraft X checked on my frequency descending to 24;000 feet 2 to 3 minutes after responding to a TCAS RA with no loss of separation on the previous frequency. Upon leveling at 24;000 feet Aircraft X reported moderate turbulence to which I responded expect lower shortly as the aircraft was still in the previous sectors airspace. There had been no other reports in this area worse than light chop previously. The aircraft was descended upon entering my airspace and then two minutes later they came back requesting priority handling due to an injury in the back of the aircraft. I asked if they needed any assistance or were declaring a medical emergency to which they responded negative. A couple minutes after that they reported two crew members injured in the back of the aircraft; one with serious injuries. After coordinating everything they were requesting at the airport I asked the aircraft if they experienced turbulence worse than the moderate they reported. They replied that it was just moderate however responded to the RA that had just completed prior to checking on my frequency resulted in an engine not being configured properly.There were no preceding arrivals on their flight path and previous PIREPs solicited from departures in the same area reported nothing worse than continuous light chop. All AIRMETs and SIGMETs were broadcasted for forecasted chop and real world PIREPs were received. Solicited ride reports from multiple surrounding sectors had been nothing worse than light to moderate chop for the area with nothing indicating that injuries could be a possibility. We are thinking that because of the RA climb while rapidly descending to meet a crossing restriction and subsequent high rate of descent after clearing the conflict put the aircraft in an undesirable condition with a higher than normal airspeed into the light chop. It was clear the aircraft was placed in an unstabilized descent due to the RA and interrupted decent profile. If the restriction was to be tight afterwards and as the aircraft stated one engine wasn't speed configured properly the aircraft could have asked for relief from the restriction. The aircraft went from high descent rate to leveling at the crossing restriction point which wasn't in my airspace for further decent yet.
Two Center Controllers reported an aircraft responded to an RA for traffic as well as encountered moderate turbulence causing injuries to some of the flight crew.