A LATAM-operated Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner experienced a “technical incident” according to the airline while en route to Auckland, New Zealand, resulting in a sudden dive that sent dozens of passengers flying through the cabin and led to 50 injuries and at least 10 hospitalizations.
“It Just Dropped Out Of The Sky” – LATAM Blames Boeing 787 Sudden Dive On “Technical Incident”
The incident occurred on Latam flight LA800 from Sydney (SYD) to Auckland (AKL) on Monday, March 11, 2024. The Fifth Freedom flight was operated by a Boeing 787-9 aircraft, roughly eight years old (registration code CC-BGG).
While flying at 41,000 feet over the Tasman Sea, the aircraft suddenly began to dive. One passenger onboard described how his seatmate flew up and hit the ceiling:
“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 plane then started taking a nose dive and I was just thinking ‘OK this is it, we’re done’.”
Passengers who did not have their seatbelt fasted found themselves violently smacking against the ceiling of the aircraft, with blood smeared on the ceiling.
Doctors onboard treated patients in the final 50 minutes of the flight while emergency crews met the aircraft in Auckland.
More On The Techincal Incident
It was originally reported that the incident was due to unexpected clear air turbulence, but that does not appear to be the case.
LATAM later blamed the incident on a “technical” issue that led to ” strong movement” but provided no more details. But a passenger onboard reports that one of the pilots told him, “My gauges just blanked out, I lost all of my ability to fly the plane.”
Without being an armchair mechanic, I wonder if this has anything to do with the 2016 airworthiness directive from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that concerns control module simultaneously resetting?
In an airworthiness directive to be published Friday, the FAA said it is reacting to indications that “all three flight control modules on the 787 might simultaneously reset if continuously powered on for 22 days.”
It said such a simultaneous reset in flight “could result in flight control surfaces not moving in response to flight crew inputs for a short time and consequent temporary loss of controllability.”
Would these screens going black potentially cause such a freefall or boot the aircraft from autopilot?
I trust that LATAM and New Zealand investigators will be transparent as they seek to understand better exactly what occurred.
CONCLUSION
A LATAM 787-9 unexpectedly dropped today after a “technical incident” onboard. As a result, dozens were injured and at least 10 passengers required hospital attention in Auckland.
We don’t know the root of the incident, but it does not appear it was turbulence-related.
image: Adam Moreira
Boeing apologists arriving in 3….2….
The US FAA will also have jurisdiction in this investigation because the 787 was manufactured in the USA. This will be an extremely important one.
Are you sure on NTSB involvement?
So much on the B787 was outsourced, can it be claimed as US made?
If left to Boeing, final assembly would be in China.
Sad to once again read about people being injured and some requiring hospitalizations simply because they were not wearing their seatbelts. I guess Darwinian selection doesn’t apply to injuries.
@jsm: don’t get me wrong, a seatbelt saved my life during a car accident several years ago. However, it is stupid to always blame people getting injured on planes because they were not wearing seatbelts. I always wear seatbelts while seated but you have to agree that it is impossible that 100% of passengers of FAs are wearing seatbelts all the time. Why? Because if the seatbelt sign is off, FAs will be walking on the aisle, passengers will go to the restroom, will grab stuff from the overhead bins, will be up to allow other passengers to move, etc…. Thus, yes, if seated wear a seatbelt but you can’t have everyone seated 100% of the time.
I commented on the lack of wearing seatbelts as that was “almost” specifically mentioned in the report: “Passengers who did not have their seatbelt fasted found …”.
I assumed fasted was meant to be fastened.
Exactly what I just said to my husband. I was a flight attendant for 30 years. No matter how smooth your flight it…wear your seat belt!
The incident has been described three ways. Nose dive, drop, and strong movement, but are these all the same actions? And would a commercial aircraft be continually kept connected to power for 22 days?
Many questions for this investigation.
It’s “Chilean” not “Chilling”.
Also “Technical”, not “Tehincal” or “Tehnical”
No, it’s chilling.
But that spell checker is worthless for titles. Second time in three days…
I guess you may not want robots handing aircraft yet.
@SMR … +1 .
I am highly doubting the pilot would have commented to a passenger some specific as to losing all instruments. He may have said that he had some technical issues but left it at that.
I’ve actually flown that flight as a faith freedom to SYD and returned from MEL on EK. Was a fun two hit fifth freedom run back in around 2017.
I’ve done the exact thing – EK from MEL-AKL, LA from AKL-SYD. Great deal on those flights! I even scored an op-up on Emirates to J.
Seatbelts people !!!
Do you keep your seatbelt on when you go to the restroom on a plane? Just checking.
Thanks Matt, you’re probably very close with the “total reset” issue theory. It was discovered by Norwegian (All Boeing” fleet), I believe.
A Boeing 787, wow, what a surprise.
Boeing is in some real hot water right now
Maybe a safety counter keeping track of powered-on minutes overflowed. The maximum 16 bit signed integer value is 32768. In minutes, this would be 546 hours, or 22.7 days. Hmmm….
That’s a cool catch.
The Unix 32 bit clock resets on January 19, 2038.