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At least 50 hurt as LATAM's Boeing 787 to Auckland 'just dropped' mid-flight (www.reuters.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (2 children)

Headline is clickbaitey, the fact it's a Boeing is irrelevant. This can just happen.

I was on a flight to Colorado from Canada, flying over the Rockies, and we hit a mild patch of turbulence that, without warning, suddenly turned into a quick, long drop that threw folks who weren't belted in out of their seats and sent drinks flying.

The lesson is simple: wear your damn seatbelt and avoid walking around the cabin unnecessarily.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (2 children)

the fact it’s a Boeing is irrelevant. This can just happen.

That seems like an open question, given quotes like this:

Jokat said there was no turbulence after the incident and once the plane landed the pilot came to the back of the plane in “shock”.

“I asked ‘what happened?’ and he said ‘my gauges just blanked out, I lost all of my ability to fly the plane’.”

Source

It's just one passenger's word so far, but it merits investigation. Sounds like it could have been a problem with the plane.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago

Fair enough. Notably, that quote isn't in the Reuters article, which is what I was commenting on.

No arguments about the need for an investigation, particularly if that quote from the pilot is genuine.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Article doesn't seem to agree with you:

The head of the FAA, Mike Whitaker, said the agency will work with Australian authorities or the New Zealand authorities to investigate. "We will certainly follow that closely" given the airplane was manufactured in the U.S., he said. The U.S. National Safety Board said it did not yet have anything official on the incident...

In 2008, dozens of people were injured when another wide-body jet, an Airbus 330 operated by Qantas Airways, dropped sharply because of faulty readings from a flight data computer while heading for Perth in Australia.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

All that says is they're investigating.

At this time, unless something new comes to light, there's little reason to believe it's anything but an unusual episode of turbulence.

Edit: and according to a different article, there is at least one passenger who claims the pilot said their controls "blanked out" which would qualify as "something new".

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The part I'm disagreeing with is your idea that this should be written off as something that just happens. Authorities don't appear to share your view.

Normally pilots warn crew and passengers when approaching possible turbulence. In this case the crew got hurt.

Random turbulence that maims the flight crew just wouldn't be practical as a "thing that just happens" on regular longhaul flights.

There's an outside chance it's a freak accident, but it's far more likely that it's some kind of malfunction (of pilot or more likely of the plane).

[–] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Random turbulence that maims the flight crew just wouldn't be practical as a "thing that just happens" on regular longhaul flights.

I never said it happens often but it absolutely does happen. Here was a particularly spectacular example that happened to folks a few years back on their way to Australia (and note, if you want more examples, the article lists a couple of other past incidents that also resulted in crew and passenger injuries):

https://apnews.com/article/49db2788d04d4e11bcbb1a63dbae4199

Passengers on a flight from Canada to Australia said they had no warning about turbulence that suddenly slammed people into the ceiling of the plane and injured more than three dozen — a phenomenon that experts say can be nearly impossible for pilots to see coming.

One passenger on that flight noted:

“The plane just dropped,” passenger Stephanie Beam said. “When we hit turbulence, I woke up and looked over to make sure my kids were buckled. The next thing I knew there’s just literally bodies on the ceiling of the plane.”

So again, I cannot emphasize this enough: wear your damn seatbelts, people.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Thanks, interesting read.

I still think it's too early to tell if this was that or computer failure, though.

Interestingly New Zealand is now demanding the black box from LATAM...