Latam Boeing loosing altitude sent passengers flying through cabin

A Latam Airlines flight going from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday morning, suddenly lost altitude about one hour before landing, sending passengers flying through the cabin and injuring over 50 people.

Operated on a Boeing 787-9, “Flight LA800, operating the Sydney-Auckland route today, had a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement”, the airline said in a statement. The airline has not detailed what the “technical event” was, but a passenger told RNZ that, after landing, the pilot came out into the cabin and said he had briefly lost his instrumentation.

According to passengers, the entire ordeal only lasted for a split second, but the sudden loss of altitude was enough to create a zero-gravity environment on board, sending those not wearing seatbelts flying to the roof of the cabin.

Some people have described the feeling like being “at the top of a rollercoaster” while others said that seeing their fellow passengers with their backs against the ceiling was like a scene out of The Exorcist. “I thought I was dreaming. I opened my eyes and he was on the roof of the plane on his back, looking down on me. It was like The Exorcist”, Brian Jokat told RNZ.

“The plane dipped so dramatically into a nose dive for a couple of seconds and around 30 people hit the ceiling hard”, another passenger told the New Zealand Herald. “None of us knew what had happened until after the flight, I was just trying to keep everyone calm. We never heard any announcement from the captain.”

As cabin crew members also got hurt during what some described as a “nosedive”, passengers helped each after the plane restabilised. A few people had broken bones, while others suffered injuries to their heads and shoulders due to hitting the ceiling, which was left blood stained and broken in some places due to the force of the impact with the “flying” passengers.

The plane landed at Auckland International Airport at 4:26 pm, local time. Multiple ambulances and medical crews awaited the arrival of the flight. About 50 people were treated on the spot and 12 immediately taken to the hospital, one in a serious condition, according to the New Zealand Herald.