A transcript of the conversation which took place between the crew in the cockpit of LAN800 and air traffic controllers has been obtained by Traveltalk, providing new details of what happened in the moments following the mid-air incident that injured dozens of people.
TravelTalk first broke the story of the unfolding incident when it took place on April 11.
Flight LA800, operating the Sydney – Auckland – Santiago route, carrying 263 passengers and 9 flight and cabin crew members, experienced a “strong shake during flight”, the cause of which is still under investigation.
The aircraft, a B787 with registration CC-BGG, landed at 16:26 local time at Auckland Airport as scheduled.
The Boeing Dreamliner, CC-BGG first flew in 2015.
As a result of the incident, 10 passengers from New Zealand (2), Australia (4), Chile (1), Brazil (2), France(1), and 3 cabin crew members were taken to a medical centre to confirm their health condition, with the majority discharged shortly after.
The first information about the incident was communicated at 0239 GMT to air traffic controllers based in New Zealand. The transcript refers to a location known as “LUNBI,” this is a waypoint used by pilots to navigate in the sky. Its location is shown in the map above.
“Yes sir ah good day um we are at ah Ninety-Three miles ah from LUNBI position Flight Level Four One Zero, um we the um before an issue with the aircraft and now it’s solved but (unintelligible) issue um some passengers now are injured and we request um medical assistance ah on our arrival in New Zealand- in Auckland.”
In the moments that followed, crew passed on some information about the number of passengers injured onboard as well as potential injuries sustained in the incident.
“There are two doctors in the airplane now and one of them, it seems like one of the crew members could be with a fracture, and the other passengers seems to have some cuts and you know injuries from glass and stuff like that but maybe two of them have severe injuries like a broken limb or something,” crew members reported while asking for a priority landing in Auckland.
Here is the full transcript:
| Time | From | To | Audio |
| Auckland Control 129.3 | |||
| 0239:32 | LAN800 | AA Control | # LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO |
| 0239:36 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO Auckland Control |
| 0239:39 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes sir good day we are at Ninety-Three miles from LUNBI position Flight Level Four One Zero, we the before an issue with the aircraft and now it’s solved but (unintelligible) issue some passengers now are injured and we request medical assistance on our arrival in New Zealand- in Auckland |
| 0240:03 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO copy that requesting medical assistance on arrival do you require priority? |
| 0240:14 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes we will accept priority please |
| 0240:18 | AA Control | LAN800 | Just confirm you are requesting priority |
| 0240:21 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes if there’s no problem with that we will accept priority |
| 0241:22 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO how many passengers are injured? |
| 0241:26 | LAN800 | AA Control | Standby-one we’ll get back to you soon |
| 0243:39 | LAN800 | AA Control | Auckland LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO |
| 0243:42 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO go ahead |
| 0243:45 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes we have three crew members (unintelligible) (unintelligible) (unintelligible) now and around ten passengers with some kind of injuries |
| 0243:55 | AA Control | LAN800 | Confirm that is three crew members and one zero passengers with injuries |
| 0244:02 | LAN800 | AA Control | S-say again |
| 0244:04 | AA Control | LAN800 | Confirm that is three crew members and ten passengers with injuries |
| 0244:08 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes three crew members and ten passengers |
| 0244:12 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO thanks and just advising that at this stage Auckland Airport is not accepting any arrivals due police activity but we will try get you in as soon as possible |
| 0244:26 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes thank you we’re still Fifty miles from LUNBI and we’ll we will just wait for any information and hopefully we will have the emergency equipment when we arrival in Auckland |
| 0244:42 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT-EIGHT ZERO ZERO thanks – can you advise the nature of the injuries as well is it just bruising or is there any serious injuries? |
| 0244:54 | LAN800 | AA Control | Ye- well there are two doctors in the airplane now and one of them it seems like one of the crew members could be with a fracture, and the other passengers seems to have some cuts and you know injuries from glass and stuff like that but maybe two of them have severe injuries like a broken limb or something |
| 0245:20 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO thanks |
| 0250:06 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO identified you are cleared the ARADI Eight Alfa Arrival Runway TWO THREE LEFT, Auckland Information Lima QNH One Zero Two Two |
| 0250:15 | LAN800 | AA Control | At (unintelligible) contact LUNBI Two Arrival TWO THREE LEFT One Zero Two Two LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO |
| 0250:27 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO just confirm the ARADI Eight Alfa Arrival Runway TWO THREE LEFT |
| 0250:47 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO Auckland Control |
| 0250:51 | LAN800 | AA Control | Yes sir sorry it was the ARADI Eight Alfa right |
| 0250:55 | AA Control | LAN800 | Affirm the ARADI Eight Alfa Runway TWO THREE LEFT |
| 0250:58 | LAN800 | AA Control | ARADI Eight Alfa TWO THREE LEFT thank you |
| 0251:11 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO when ready descend to One One Thousand Feet and best forward speed thanks |
| 0251:19 | LAN800 | AA Control | Okay when ready descend to One One Zero and say again LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO |
| 0251:24 | AA Control | LAN800 | One One Thousand Feet and you are cleared high speed |
| 0251:28 | LAN800 | AA Control | Okay One One Zero cleared high speed thank you |
| 0251:40 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO and just advising that the Auckland Tower has been advised of the injuries and they are trying to sort out some medical assistance at this time |
| 0251:49 | LAN800 | AA Control | Okay thank you very much |
| 0256:05 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO medics have been advised and they will hopefully all be ready by the time you’re on the ground |
| 0256:15 | LAN800 | AA Control | Say again sorry LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO please |
| 0256:18 | AA Control | LAN800 | The medics have been advised |
| 0256:20 | LAN800 | AA Control | Okay thank you very much |
| 0307:12 | AA Control | LAN800 | LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO contact Auckland Approach One Two Four Decimal Three good day |
| 0307:17 | LAN800 | AA Control | One Two Four Decimal Three thank you for all your help LAN Chile EIGHT ZERO ZERO |
Communications continued until the aircraft landed safely and was met by paramedics on the tarmac at Auckland International Airport, however no details of the incident were given from this point onwards.
