At least 50 people were hurt when a Boeing 787 operated by LATAM Airlines dropped abruptly mid-flight from Sydney to Auckland on Monday, according to the airline and a New Zealand health service organisation that treated the injured.

The aircraft landed at Auckland airport as scheduled on Monday afternoon, according to FlightAware.

“LATAM Airlines Group reports that flight LA800, operating the Sydney-Auckland route today, had a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement,” the carrier said.

One person is in a serious condition while the rest suffered mild-to-moderate injuries, a spokesperson for Hato Hone St John, which treated roughly 50 people at the airport, said.

“The plane, unannounced, just dropped. I mean it dropped unlike anything I’ve ever experienced on any kind of minor turbulence, and people were thrown out of their seats, hit the top of the roof of the plane, throwing down the aisles,” passenger Brian Jokat told the BBC.

  • @RGB3x3English
    10•4 months ago

    Not to defend Boeing in anything at all, but it’s news stories like these that are making it seem worse than it is. They use Boeing’s name because they’ve already been in the news a bunch and it drives clicks.

    When something happens unrelated to Boeing, news stories need to stop including them in headlines as clickbait

    • @TrickDacy
      18•4 months ago

      Conversely, there’s piles of evidence that Boeing has been reckless and hundreds of people are dead because of it. I don’t care about driving clicks in this context

    • @[email protected]
      4•4 months ago

      Yeah imagine if the news started reporting every traffic accident that occurs daily. People would start to be afraid to drive even though it’s already dangerous but normalized and not focused on.

    • FuglyDuckEnglish
      2•4 months ago

      It needs to be noted that airplanes generally do not drop more than five feet in turbulence- but passengers, with no real point of reference in the cabin, or experience, will vastly exaggerate how bad the drop was.

      Five feet is enough to cause these injuries if people were out of their seats,