Roughly 50 people were injured after a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner suddenly nosedived mid-flight on Monday. LATAM Airlines claimed the sudden “strong movement” was caused by a “technical event during the flight.”
LATAM Airlines noted that 263 passengers and 9 LATAM Airlines crew members were on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner’s Monday flight from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand. The airline explained that the aircraft “experienced a strong shake” and that the cause of the incident was under investigation.
In a statement obtained by The Washington Post, LATAM Airlines said the flight experienced a “technical event” that “caused a strong movement.” Health officials announced that roughly 50 individuals were injured on Monday. According to Hato Hone St. John health officials, 12 individuals were transported to local hospitals for medical treatment. One of the injured individuals was listed in “serious condition.”
“We were notified at 3.58pm on Monday 11 March and responded with 14 units including seven ambulances, two operations managers, two Major Incident Support Team vehicles, one Command Unit, and two rapid response vehicles,” Hato Hone St. John said in a statement. “Our ambulance crews assessed and treated approximately 50 patients, with one patient in a serious condition and the remainder in a moderate to minor condition.”
NBC reported that New Zealand authorities seized the black boxes from the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner involved in Monday’s incident as part of the investigation into what caused the plane to plunge mid-flight.
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Brian Jokat, one of the passengers on Monday’s flight, told the BBC that some of the airplane passengers were thrown against the ceiling of the plane, causing multiple injuries and damage to the cabin of the plane.
“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,” Jokat said. “Some of the roof panels were broken from people being thrown up and knocking through the plastic roof panels in the aisle ways. And there was blood coming from several people’s heads.”
Collin Rugg, co-owner of Trending Politics, shared a video on social media that was taken after the “strong movement” incident on the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner.
In a statement to CNN, Boeing said the company was “working to gather more information about the flight and will provide any support needed by our customers.”
