Dozens Injured On LATAM Boeing 787 Flight In Bizarre Incident

Dozens Injured On LATAM Boeing 787 Flight In Bizarre Incident

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A LATAM Boeing 787 had a pretty dramatic flight today, leading to mid-flight injuries. What’s surprising is what reportedly caused this incident.

LATAM Boeing 787 suddenly drops mid-flight

This situation happened today (Monday, March 11, 2024), and involves LATAM flight LA800 from Sydney (SYD) to Auckland (AKL). This is a 2h42min fifth freedom flight, covering a distance of 1,345 miles, which continues to Santiago (SCL). The flight was operated by an eight-year-old Boeing 787-9 with the registration code CC-BGG.

According to passengers onboard, around two-thirds of the way into the flight, the plane “just dropped out of the sky.” One traveler says he was napping during the incident, and woke up to see his seat mate on the ceiling of the plane. “His back is on the ceiling and he’s up in the air and then he drops down and hits his head on the armrest. The whole plane is screaming.”

The ceiling of the aircraft was badly damaged from people hitting it. Once the plane stabilized, doctors onboard helped with treating passengers, as a lot of people had cuts and were bleeding.

There was no advance warning that anything was wrong, which is also probably why so many people were injured. This is a good reminder to always wear your seat belt, even if you think it’s a smooth ride, because things can change in a split second.

There was quite the medical response at Auckland Airport once this flight landed. One person is reportedly in serious condition, while 10 patients were taken to the hospital with minor to moderate medical issues. The remaining passengers could be treated at the airport.

The flight path for LATAM flight LA800

This incident happened due to a “technical problem”

Here’s the really strange part of this story. Everything about this sounds like what you’d expect in a situation where a flight encounters severe turbulence. However, that’s reportedly not what happened. An airline spokesperson has said that the sudden movement of the aircraft was caused by a “technical problem.”

Furthermore, a passenger reports speaking to one of the pilots onboard, who relayed to him that “my gauges just blanked out, I lost all of my ability to fly the plane.” Now, I’d be hesitant to trust one random passenger’s account of what the pilot said, but the airline has confirmed the incident happened due to a technical problem, rather than turbulence, so…

Looking at Flightradar24 data for this flight, you oddly don’t notice any particularly large fluctuations in the speed or altitude, unless I’m missing something.

The flight data for LATAM flight LA800

Bottom line

Passengers on today’s LATAM Boeing 787 flight from Sydney to Auckland had quite the dramatic journey, as the plane reportedly dropped suddenly, leading to dozens of injuries. The incident wasn’t due to turbulence, though, but instead the airline states that it was due to a technical problem. I’m curious to see what an investigation determines…

What do you make of this LATAM Boeing 787 incident?

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  1. mauipeter Guest

    Got seatbelts ? 8-(

  2. FlyerDon Guest

    With both the flight data recorder and the CVR available, it shouldn’t take too long to figure out what happened. I’d be looking at the pilots actions or maybe their reactions.

  3. csongor Guest

    BBC News

    John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

    In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

    Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett's passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

    It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68534703

    BBC News

    John Barnett had worked for Boeing for 32 years, until his retirement in 2017.

    In the days before his death, he had been giving evidence in a whistleblower lawsuit against the company.

    Boeing said it was saddened to hear of Mr Barnett's passing. The Charleston County coroner confirmed his death to the BBC on Monday.

    It said the 62-year-old had died from a "self-inflicted" wound on 9 March and police were investigating.

    https://www.bbc.com/news/business-68534703

    1. csongor Guest

      Lucky,

      You ought to look up what "hat tip' means. . .

  4. Manuel Guest

    There was an advice about wing defrosts malfunctioning in that airplane model last week. I don't know if that may have anything to do, but there is a reason why many Boeing employees who built the 787 are reluctant to fly in them.

  5. Mason Guest

    Surprised that "Aussie" isn't mocking Boeing without even knowing exact backgrounds yet

  6. Tim Dunn Diamond

    this is all over global media but it is way too soon to be jumping to any conclusions about the cause

    1. C-B New Member

      Because Delta has 737 MAX orders?

  7. MN Guest

    Was supposed to take Latam 787 from Auckland to Sydney back in October. We waited 5 hours before the crew told us they couldn’t get the jet engines to turn on (there were mechanics with the jet covers open frantically working the whole time). The plane was towed away from the gate and we all had to be rescheduled (which was a chaotic mess itself).

  8. Adam Bond Guest

    Real life AIRFRAME - by Michael Crichton… LOL!

  9. Morgan Diamond

    There are also photos taken from the flight circulating around on news outlets - pretty insane that the roof essentially caved in, people would have had to have been thrown at force. Will the ATSB investigate?

    1. Mike C Diamond

      Nope, Australia doesn't have jurisdiction so it won't be the ATSB. The incident was in international airspace so Chile will conduct the investigation. The NZ Transport Accident Investigation Commission has said it will assist, and has reportedly seized the flight recorders.

  10. vlcnc Guest

    Another Boeing plane with a technical problem? Oh my, please don't tell me it isn't so!

    1. jedipenguin Guest

      I urge US airlines to consider looking at the Chinese built CS919-Chinese quality can't be any worse than Boeing's quality at this point.

    2. Bob Guest

      Wow. Ccp is on this conversation. That's a hard no to manufactured and "design" in China based on stolen ip from the west.

    3. Icarus Guest

      Consider the 10s of 1000s of flights a day as you write from your basement.

      The same applies person that assumes all the staff are the same because of one bad apple.

    4. LAXLonghorn Diamond

      We do not have the full information on what happened....

  11. FAA Pilot Guest

    @Ben,

    The FlightRadar24 data show missing time coverage between 1:32 AM UTC to 1:56 AM UTC, and then again 2:27 AM UTC to 2:40 AM UTC. Additionally, the sampling rate for these ADS-C based data link is only 2 data points per minute. A clear air turbulence based altitude deviation would have been recovered possibly between the 2 data points 30 seconds apart.

  12. Tim Dunn Diamond

    Boeing better hope that they can find fault with Latam fairly quickly. They don't need another problem with another one of their aircraft.

    1. Jack Guest

      Boeing has lots of experience blaming customers for its manufacturing and technology issues.

  13. Maryland Guest

    Twilight Zone episode. Buckle up Buttercup.

  14. Creditcrunch Diamond

    Sounds like the speed breaks must have deployed, can’t think of anything else that would cause such a dramatic drop in altitude other than them hitting CAT or they were in a nose dive but what is being reported is the aircraft remained level in decent.

    1. Ben Guest

      Speed brakes make you break?

    2. Creditcrunch Diamond

      Those slats you see when a plane lands on the wings are part of the speed break system, deployed mid air to their full extent will cause the aircraft to immediately fall as they loose their aerodynamic capability.

    3. CPH-Flyer Diamond

      https://www.merriam-webster.com/grammar/brake-or-break-difference

      ;-)

    4. Maybe Timmy Guest

      Add lose loose too

  15. Jeffrey Scania Ng Guest

    If it is a Boeing, I ain't going.

    1. Eskimo Guest

      If it's Biden, he ain't retiring.

    2. Jeffrey Scania Ng Guest

      I'm not sure I follow your logic about how this is related to politics.

      This is about Boeing building airplanes with quality similar to Ford / GM / Chrysler just like how Airbus builds airplanes with quality similar to Audi / Mercedes / BMW.

  16. Exit Row Seat Guest

    Did you have your seat belt buckled???

    Except for the guy who happen to be in the John, seat belts are amazing safety devices which prevent injury, upset, distress, and head trauma.

    As per the preflight briefing, "Only you can bucket your own belt!!"

  17. Amer Akhtar Guest

    Both the pilots slept ?

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Icarus Guest

Consider the 10s of 1000s of flights a day as you write from your basement. The same applies person that assumes all the staff are the same because of one bad apple.

3
Brizone Diamond

Oh yes. Yes it could!

2
FAA Pilot Guest

@Ben, The FlightRadar24 data show missing time coverage between 1:32 AM UTC to 1:56 AM UTC, and then again 2:27 AM UTC to 2:40 AM UTC. Additionally, the sampling rate for these ADS-C based data link is only 2 data points per minute. A clear air turbulence based altitude deviation would have been recovered possibly between the 2 data points 30 seconds apart.

2
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