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.

  • @Wrench
    43•9 months ago

    Downvote this clickbait.

    Title is definitely designed to give an impression that it’s the aircrafts fault, and to imply that the craft fell out of the sky, obviously to capitalize on the anti Beoing trend.

    As others here have correctly pointed out, this is an ever present risk for all aircraft. Air is invisible, and you can’t see pockets of turbulence before you hit them. It’s a risk you should be aware of on all flights, and the reason you’re asked to keep your belt on while seated even if the light is off.

    • Talaraine
      23•9 months ago

      Er well in this article where they spoke with the pilot, he had this to say, "Jokat said the pilot came to the back of the plane once the plane landed.

      “I asked him ‘what happened?’ and he said to me ‘I lost my instrumentation briefly and then it just came back all of a sudden’.”

      https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/511423/latam-airlines-sydney-to-auckland-flight-50-people-treated-after-mid-air-incident

      So yeah, it is in fact looking like it may be something with the plane.

    • @[email protected]
      3•9 months ago

      Yeah I’ve been through something like this. Felt like 2-3 seconds of full weightlessness, people were floating out of their seats. The scary part was we were on approach for landing so we didn’t have that much altitude to lose! Everything turned out fine, though. No injuries that i know of. Just a brief moment of terror as the magic making the plane stay in the air took a brief nap.