Flight attendant may be to blame for plane's nose dive that injured dozens
A cockpit accident was the likely cause of a sudden drop that sent passengers on a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner bouncing 'off the roof' during a flight to New Zealand, according to The Wall Street Journal.
U.S. industry officials briefed on preliminary evidence from an investigation of the incident told the paper that a cockpit mishap may have pushed a pilot into the controls of the plane.
According to the report, a LATAM Airlines flight attendant hit a switch on the pilot's seat while serving a meal, activating a motorized feature that pushed the pilot into the controls and sent the plane into a nose dive, the officials said. The switch has a cover and is not supposed to be used when a pilot is in the seat.
LATAM Airlines, which is based in Chile, has said the Boeing 787 suffered a "technical event during the flight which caused strong movement."
At least 50 people were injured Monday after a "strong shake" threw those without seatbelts from their seats and tossed around passengers on the Chilean plane traveling from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. The plane landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled, but the more than 200 passengers aboard were shaken up by the nightmare flight.
Passengers described how the plane took a sudden, dramatic dip into a "nose dive," sending some who were not secured in their seats tumbling into the ceiling.
"If you were in your seat, you went straight up to the ceiling and bounced off the roof. I just happened to be one of the lucky ones who was strapped in for that incident," passenger Brian Jokat told ABC News in Australia on Tuesday.
BOEING PLANE FORCED TO MAKE EMERGENCY LANDING AT LAX AFTER POSSIBLE MECHANICAL ISSUE
Paramedics and more than 10 emergency vehicles were on scene when the plane landed in Auckland, according to The Associated Press. About 50 people were treated on the scene for minor injuries.
The LATAM Airlines Boeing 787 Dreamliner plane that suddenly lost altitude mid-flight a day earlier, dropping violently and injuring dozens of terrified travellers, is seen on the tarmac of the Auckland International Airport in Auckland on March 12,
LATAM Airlines said 10 passengers and three cabin crew members were taken to a medical center for treatment after the flight. The majority were discharged shortly after. One passenger and one crew member required additional attention but did not have life-threatening injuries, according to the statement.
"LATAM is working in coordination with the respective authorities to support the investigations into the incident," the airline said in a statement Monday.
"We are in contact with our customer, and Boeing stands ready to support investigation-related activities as requested," Boeing said in a statement to the Wall Street Journal.
New Zealand's Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) is conducting an investigation into the incident. Authorities seized the black boxes of the LATAM Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on Tuesday to learn more about the flight's trajectory and communication between pilots around the time of the incident, Reuters reported.
50 injured after 'technical event' on Boeing plane
At least 50 people were injured Monday after a LATAM Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner "dipped so dramatically into a nose dive for a couple of seconds" during a flight to New Zealand, causing passengers to slam into the roof of the cabin, witnesses say. FOX's Alex Hogan joined LiveNOW from FOX's Josh Breslow with the details.
Two investigators from Chile's civil-aviation agency traveled to New Zealand on Wednesday to lead the investigation, along with an expert from New Zealand, a spokeswoman for the agency said Thursday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Boeing will reportedly issue a memo related to the seat switch believed to have caused the incident.
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Fox News Digital's Greg Norman and Stephen Sorace contributed to this report.