A plane traveling from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand, broke down and “frozen” in mid-air on Monday, injuring at least 50 people.
Latin American Airlines told new zealand herald The flight to Auckland, normally a stopover on the way to Santiago, Chile, suffered a “severe shock” due to “technical issues”.
The South American airline’s flight LA800, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, landed at Auckland Airport as planned on Monday afternoon, FlightAware reported.
Hato Hone St John ambulances treated around 50 people at the airport, with 13 taken to hospital, a spokesman told Reuters.
One patient was in serious condition and the rest suffered minor to moderate injuries, they added.
The New Zealand Herald quoted a passenger as saying She said she experienced a “quick little descent” during the flight.
“I used to be a flight attendant and this was the first time… the whole plane froze,” she said.
“The whole plane was screaming,” one passenger said. Brian Jokat recalled the moment of the incident in an interview with New Zealand news outlet Stuff. “Then the plane started to dive and I just thought ‘OK, that’s it, we’re done’.”
The passenger described the terrifying moment he woke up to find his neighbor in his seat had been “thrown into the air”.
People were lying on the floor and the ceiling was “broken from people hitting their heads and bodies,” he said.
“Basically, people were put in neck braces, people had their heads cut and they were bleeding. It was crazy.”
After the plane landed, the pilot walked to the back of the plane and looked shocked, Joe Carter said.
“I asked ‘What happened?’ and he said ‘My instruments are completely gone and I’ve lost all ability to fly the aircraft’.”
Boeing and LATAM did not immediately respond to Reuters questions about the cause and nature of the incident.
This story is being updated
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