The fallout from the LATAM Airlines incident which unfolded in the skies above the Tasman Sea is continuing to unravel, with News of the scare now making headlines in the United States.
TravelTalk broke the story of the unfolding incident on Monday evening.
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 currently under investigation, the airline says.
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.
Of those hospitalised, four were from Australia, two from New Zealand, two from Brazil and one from Chile and France.
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.
“LATAM is working in coordination with the respective authorities to support the investigations into the incident,” a spokesperson for the airline said.
Boeing has told TravelTalk it is “working to gather more information about the flight” and says it will provide any support needed by its customer, LATAM.
For passengers continuing their journey to Santiago, Chile, flight LA1130 has been scheduled for 12 March 2024, departing from Auckland at 20:00 local time.
LATAM provided affected passengers with food, accommodation, and transportation due to the flight cancellation.
LATAM Airlines Group said it’s priority is to support the passengers and crew members of the flight, and apologises for any inconvenience and discomfort that this situation may have caused.
Hato Hone St John is New Zealand’s ambulance service.
Anna Pownall, its Area Operations Manager confirmed the service was notified at 3.58pm on Monday (local time) and initiated an extensive response with 14 units including seven ambulances, two operations managers, two Major Incident Support Team vehicles, one Command Unit, and two rapid response vehicles.
“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.
“A total of twelve patients were transported to hospital – ten were taken to Middlemore Hospital, including one patient in a serious condition, one patient was transported to Auckland City Hospital in a moderate condition, and one patient was taken to Starship Hospital in a moderate condition.”
Starship Hospital is Auckland’s children’s hospital.
So, how serious is this?
Aviation commentator Irene King says we will know this when it’s announced which authority will be in charge of the investigation.
King has told media she was concerned by reports that the pilot was heard saying the temporarily lost his instrumentation.
King said, if that were the case then the incident is one that would have the attention of the industry around, and airlines would be wanting to know how it happened, and fast.
“These aircraft just don’t fail, they have fail safe systems in them. Maybe they’ve had a momentary glitch with their systems,” she said.
“There’s a lack of specific detail here. It’s very unusual,” King told AM.
What does the data say?
In this digital age, every flight can be tracked online. This usually means data including a flight’s altitude can be obtained by anyone within minutes.
However, in this case the aircraft may have been outside of the reception area for websites such as FlightRadar24.com.
“Upon review, we don’t appear to show any significant altitude changes in the flight data, though it may have occurred during one of the brief periods the aircraft was out of our coverage,” a spokesperson for the website told TravelTalk.
Support for those onboard
New Zealand’s Air Line Pilots Association (NZALPA) has reached out to the crew of LA800.
NZALPA President Andrew McKeen, who is also an Air New Zealand 787 pilot, said it was important as a fellow pilot to support their colleagues.
“It’s a natural human reaction to want to speculate on the cause. After any incident or accident NZALPA’s goal is always to understand the learnings that may come out of the investigation to help prevent the same incident or accident happening again” says President McKeen.
“Letting the investigation take place without speculation is the most responsible approach.
“Taking the time to gather all the facts and analysing all relevant information has assisted aviation in becoming one of the safest forms of transportation in the world”.
“It’s a natural human reaction to want to speculate on the cause. After any incident or accident NZALPA’s goal is always to understand the learnings that may come out of the investigation to help prevent the same incident or accident happening again”
“Taking the time to gather all the facts and analysing all relevant information has assisted aviation in becoming one of the safest forms of transportation in the world,” McKeen said.
