About 50 people were treated by emergency medical workers on Monday after a Latam Airlines flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, experienced what the airline called “strong movement” caused by a “technical problem.” Twelve people, one of whom was in serious condition, were taken to three hospitals, Auckland‘s ambulance service said. Latam, a Chilean airline, provided no specifics about the technical problem that it said had caused the disturbance.
The flight with 263 passengers and nine cabin crew members made a “violent drop” for just a second or two, said Brian Jokat, who was on board Latam Airlines Flight 800.Aircraft tracking information from Flight Aware showed a gap of roughly an hour for which no data was available.
Jokat saw the passenger next to him being thrown up to the ceiling of the plane, and then come crashing back down. “Anyone who wasn’t in a seatbelt was thrown,” he said. He added that there were no prior announcements that passengers should fasten their seatbelts, as would normally precede turbulence on a flight.
The plane, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, was met at Auckland airport by 14 emergency vehicles, including seven ambulances, according to the city’s ambulance service. Crews treated about 50 people at the scene, including the person in serious condition; the others were in “moderate to minor condition,” it said.
Safety experts say most airplane accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors that need to be thoroughly probed.