Twelve passengers have been hospitalised after a technical problem on a LATAM Airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland caused the Boeing-made plane to dip violently, the airline and emergency services said.
At least one person is in a serious condition after flight LA800 experienced an unspecified “technical event” over the Tasman Sea.
Passengers on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner said that the plane quickly lost altitude, flinging some towards the ceiling.
“People flew through the air because they weren’t wearing their seatbelts” a passenger told New Zealand broadcaster RNZ.
“Some people got pretty injured. People were really scared as well,” the unidentified man said, his voice shaking.
A spokesperson for the Chile-based airline said “a technical event during the flight” had “caused a strong movement”.
“The plane landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled,” the airline said, adding it “deeply regrets any inconvenience and discomfort this situation may have caused”.
It was not immediately clear what caused the incident.
“We are working to gather more information about the flight and will provide any support needed by our customer,” Boeing said in a statement.
Gerard Campbell, of the St John Ambulance Services, said medics were first made aware of the problem as the plane descended into New Zealand’s largest city.
More than a dozen ambulances and other medical vehicles rushed to the scene to treat the wounded.
“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,” Mr Campbell said.
“Twelve patients were transported to hospital,” he added, after earlier putting the number at 13.
At least three of those treated were cabin crew.
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Brian Jokat, who was on the flight, said he saw another passenger hit the roof of the plane before falling back down and breaking his ribs on an arm rest.
“He was on the roof of the plane on his back, looking down on me. It was like ‘The Exorcist’,” Mr Jokat told RNZ, according to the NZ Herald.
He added that after the flight landed, the pilot came to the back of the plane.
“I asked him ‘what happened?’ and he said to me ‘I lost my instrumentation briefly and then it just came back all of a sudden’,” Mr Jokat said.
“I know he felt really bad for everyone.”
Mobile phone footage posted by the NZ Herald showed concerned crew and passengers attending to one injured woman while flight attendants asked if there was a doctor aboard.
Data from airline tracker FlightAware showed the plane lost altitude about two hours into the three-hour flight.
Boeing has suffered a series of safety issues in recent years, including fatal Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes of 737 MAX planes.
There was also a near-catastrophic incident in January when a fuselage panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines aircraft blew off mid-flight.
New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it was “aware of the reported incident” and was “gathering further information to inform a decision as to whether to open an inquiry”.
The incident could be investigated by Chilean authorities if it was found to have occurred in international airspace.
