A Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner flying from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand apparently abruptly dropped "500 feet" (152m) mid-flight on Mar. 11, 2024, with 50 people aboard suffering injuries.
Passengers and crew were reportedly thrown out of their seats, with some even seen hitting the roof of the plane when it briefly went into freefall.
Pilot temporarily lost control
The pilot of the LATAM plane, operated by Chile’s flag carrier, reportedly said he temporarily lost control of his plane after one of its instruments failed, according to a passenger on Monday in a CNN report.
After landing in Auckland, the passenger said the pilot checked on the rest on board and explained he had temporarily lost control of the jet.
The pilot, when asked what had happened, was said to have admitted to a passenger that he "lost control of the plane" and that his "gauges just kind of went blank".
“He said for that brief moment he couldn’t control anything and that’s when the plane did what it did. Then he said the gauges came back and it reengaged, the plane just reengaged to its normal flight pattern. And we had no issues before, no issues after. But just that moment,” the passenger told CNN.
The same passenger told The Guardian he felt a "massive jolt" and was awoken to "see the gentleman sitting next to me on the roof of the plane".
The passenger was apparently outstretched and on the ceiling before crashing back onto the ground.
The flight landed on schedule on Monday afternoon in spite of the incident at Auckland.
Some injured passengers were treated on-site at the airport, while 13 were sent to the area's hospitals.
LATAM airlines have issued a statement that the plane had dropped due to an unspecified "technical problem".
The black box from the plane has since been seized, and investigations are ongoing.
The aftermath
Harrowing footage of the aftermath of the incident has been circulating on news agencies and social media.
A video posted by New Zealand Herald showed passengers in distress, with some suffering from bleeding head injuries.
It also showed a passenger on the ground, injured from the impact.
In an interview with 1News, a passenger said people were "screaming, crying" and that there were "lots of injuries".
Another passenger told Radio New Zealand that people were "flying around", and that "blood was on the ceiling".
Another passenger told New Zealand Herald that it was hard to tell if there was red wine or blood splattered throughout the plane.
Boeing fraught with problems
A spokesman for Boeing said to CNN that they "are working to gather more information about the flight and will provide any support needed by our customer”.
The incident follows a spate of recent and troubling technical problems suffered by other Boeing aircrafts.
A week before this incident, a Boeing 777 lost a tire mid-flight, crushing cars below.
Earlier this year, a Boeing 737 Max had a fuselage blowout.
Adding to Boeing's growing list of woes, New York Times reported on March 12 that Boeing 737 Max's production process had failed 33 of 89 tests on a Flight Aviation Administration audit, with the agency finding numerous non-compliance issues.
Boeing shares dropped by 3 percent following this latest incident.
Top photo taken from New Zealand Herald