Fifty people treated after ‘technical problem’ caused ‘strong movement’ on Latam flight from Sydney

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/mar/11/fifty-people-treated-after-technical-problem-caused-strong-movement-on-latam-flight-from-sydney

Passengers on flight to Auckland describe ‘mid-air drop’ with people thrown from their seats

Fifty people have been treated by ambulance crews and 13 people are in hospital after an in-bound aircraft to Auckland experienced a “strong movement” mid-flight that reportedly saw passengers suddenly thrown about the plane.

In a statement, Hato Hone St John Ambulance said the organisation responded to an incident at Auckland International airport involving an inbound aircraft after a call at 3.58pm local time on Monday.

Five ambulances, a major incident support team vehicle, two rapid response vehicles and a number of senior personnel were dispatched to treat passengers who had been injured on the flight.

81 points · 12 comments · view on lemmy.world

12 Comments

anlumo@lemmy.world · 36 pts · 2y (2 replies)

That’s why I always remain buckled up during the flight.

cooljacob204@kbin.social · 20 pts · 2y

And why they tell you to.

atx_aquarian@lemmy.world · 18 pts · 2y

catloaf@lemm.ee · 8 pts · 2y (8 replies)

What kind of "technical problem" could cause such a sudden drop? I know a sudden change in air could, but that's not a technical problem.

mipadaitu@lemmy.world · 24 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Well, it was a Boeing, so... probably bad QA, Software, Missing bolts....

https://www.flightaware.com/live/flight/LAN800

nilaus@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y

First question I had: "Was it a boeing?."🤔

Pretzilla@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 2y (3 replies)

The flight controls are well capable of sending the plane on a negative G roller coaster. But usually there are measures in place to prevent that

Or could be a gremlin on the wing and no one belives William Shatner

mipadaitu@lemmy.world · 12 pts · 2y (2 replies)

Is that gremlin named Dave Calhoun, the CEO of boeing?

Mr_Blott@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 2y (1 reply)

Interesting. My milkman was called Davey Calhoun when I was a kid. We called him Davey the Crow because he was a bin-raking smelly bastard

This was in the Scottish Highlands in the 1970s, do you think it's the same guy?

moistclump@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 2y

I do. I do think it’s the same guy.

Mint_Raccoon@kbin.social · 7 pts · 2y (1 reply)

It might be something like Qantas 72 where a fault in a component that supplies vital data to the flight computer caused two uncontrolled drops which resulted in over 100 people getting injured.

catloaf@lemm.ee · 5 pts · 2y

A dive I can understand, but is there a difference between a dive and a drop? As a layman, I imagine when they say it dropped, they mean they lost altitude without pitching down (though obviously they'd pitch down naturally to regain airspeed).