TRANSCRIPT
"A massive jolt happened, and I was awakened, and I looked up to see the gentleman that was sitting next to me on the roof of the plane. I'm looking at him fully outstretched with his back on the roof of the plane, and then he came crashing down to the floor. It was insane. I was like, I thought I was dreaming.”
A terrifying moment for Canadian passenger Brian Jokat who was aboard the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner operated by Chilean airline Latam, travelling from Sydney to Auckland.
At least 50 people were injured by what officials described as a “strong movement".
Ten passengers and three cabin crew members were taken to Auckland's Middlemore hospital.
“The plane, the plane basically stopped like it almost, the best way to describe it is you just it's dropped out of the air instantly, and then it started to tail down, like nose down, and then it just picked up. It just kicked into gear and just took off again. And I was like, I was sure it was over. I was like, ‘This is... We’re going, like this is heading down.’ And then once it stabilized, there was no further turbulence. No, nothing.”
Passengers said a number of people were not wearing seatbelts when flight LA800 suddenly dropped.
Another passenger, Lucas Ellwood, says it was chaos.
"We dropped and it happened in a split second. And then suddenly all the devices and bags were up near the roof. And then next moment, everything was scattered on the ground. It was, people scared, screaming, crying, and lots of lots of injuries."
LATAM Airlines said in a statement that there was "a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement.” It did not elaborate on what happened.
However, Mr Jokat says the plane's pilot was more forthcoming.
“And then the pilot came to the back and I said to him, I said, ‘What happened?’ And he said, ‘I just, my instruments, I just lost them.' And he goes, just for a few seconds, they went blank. And I was like, I was surprised that he said that. But and I just went, ‘wow.’ He goes, ‘Yeah. And then all of a sudden they just came back instantly, like within just a split second, but enough to cause the plane to just do whatever it did.”
Aviation expert Tim Collins from Upstream Aviation told SBS that would be an unusual event.
"There’re three potential causes; first of all it’s software, and a glitch that did indeed disconnect the screens, there is another possibility that it is human error, maybe the autopilot was inadvertently disconnected. It's a possibility that sounds a little bit strange but I;ve seen it happen before, is where someone leaves their seat and doesn't put their seat back and as they're exiting their seat, accidentally knocks the control column. ”
Mr Collins says pilots rehearse what to do, even if a major software glitch happens.
“If it was a software glitch the very worst case is it would have been a challenge for the pilots they would have lost all of their main instrumentation and would have had to have flown manually on standby instruments but it is possible to do and it is something that is practiced during simulator sessions.”
In a statement to SBS, plane manufacturer Boeing said ...
"Boeing is thinking of the passengers and crew and the company stands ready to support investigation-related activities as requested."
The is latest incident involving one of Boeing's aircraft.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration in January barred the planemaker from expanding production of its best-selling 737 MAX narrowbody planes, following "unacceptable" quality issues.
It emerged this week that Boeing's 737 MAX production process failed 33 of 89 audits during an examination conducted by the FAA after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines jet in January,
New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission says its Chilean counterpart is responsible for investigating this latest incident, but has confirmed it’s in the process of gathering evidence - including the cockpit voice and flight data recorders.
New Zealand's Civil Aviation Authority said in a statement it would also assist in the investigation if required.
