twelve passengers of a Latam Boeing injured and hospitalized after an air gap

The Boeing 787 suffered a sudden loss of altitude caused by a technical incident, propelling all passengers whose seat belts were not fastened to the ceiling.

Twelve passengers on a Sydney-Auckland flight were hospitalized on Monday March 11 after their plane suffered an air gap caused by a technical incident, AFP learned from emergency services and the airline Latam. At least one person is in serious condition, New Zealand paramedics reported. Passengers reported New Zealand Herald that the plane, a Boeing 787 Dreamliner according to the company, had quickly lost altitude over the Tasman Sea, propelling everyone whose seat belts were not fastened to the ceiling. “Some people were really hurt. People were really scared too”a passenger told RNZ radio.

Flight LA800 “had a technical incident during the trip, which caused a strong movement”, declared without further details a spokesperson for the Latam company, based in Chile. The plane, which was then to go to Santiago, “landed as planned at Auckland Airport”he clarified, expressing “his deep regrets for the inconvenience and embarrassment caused by this situation”.

Precedents at Boeing

This incident comes about two months after a problem involving another model from the American aircraft manufacturer Boeing. At the beginning of January, a door of a Boeing 737 MAX 9, operated by Alaska Airlines, came loose a few minutes after takeoff, causing a few minor injuries.

The 737 MAX had previously been grounded for almost two years after the crashes of two aircraft, the first, at the end of 2018, of the Indonesian company Lion Air, the second, at the beginning of 2019, of the Ethiopian company Ethiopian Airlines, causing more than 350 dead. In both cases, a problem with new software was the cause of the crashes.