Video Shows Total Chaos in Cabin of Boeing 787 Dreamliner That ‘Dropped’ in Australia
At least 50 passengers were injured, and more than a dozen of them hospitalized, after a Boeing 787 Dreamliner suddenly dropped out of th sky on Monday. The plane, operated by LATAM Airlines, was en route from Sydney, Australia, to Auckland, New Zealand, when the entire cabin was thrown into complete chaos by the plane's unexpected dive. The bloody, chaotic aftermath in the cabin was bad enough on its own, but even more concerning is the alleged cause of the accident- yet another "technical problem" on a Boeing aircraft.
Moments after the LATAM Airlines plane stabilized from its intense plunge, the cabin was strewn with the bodies of injured, disoriented passengers. According to @abcnews, one eyewitness likened it to a scene from The Exorcist, as unbuckled passengers suddenly flew up to the ceiling, slamming their heads. The force of the passengers hitting he roof was so bad that it actually damaged the cabin itself. Another eyewitness, "Valentina," told RNZ News that "blood was on the ceiling, people [flew] and broke the ceiling of the plane."
At least 50 of the passengers had injuries, including Valentina, the woman quoted in RNZ News. Of those, 13 went to the hospital with more serious injuries like broken bones or head and neck injuries, and ABC 7 Chicago reports that one passenger is in serious condition. The LATAM Airlines plane was originally supposed to continue the second leg of its journey to Santiago, Chile, after arriving in Auckland, New Zealand, but after the accident, they grounded the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and scheduled a new flight.
Without context, one would assume that this was just an instance of very violent and sudden clear-air turbulence- but that's apparently not the case. ABC 7 Chicago shared LATAM Airlines' statement that described a "technical problem" which caused a "strong movement." However, the situation that one pilot reportedly described to passengers was far more telling- and disturbing.
'I Lost Control of the Plane'
In the aftermath of the LATAM Airlines accident, one passenger has been exceptionally vocal about his experience: Brian Jokat, who took extensive photos and videos of the incident after being awoken by the drop. He also alleges that the pilot told him what happened inside the cockpit in those terrifying moments while checking on the passengers in the aftermath.
"I immediately engaged with him and said, ‘What was that?’ And he openly admitted, he said, ‘I lost control of the plane. My gauges just kind of went blank on me,’” Jokat told CNN in a video interview. “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.”
While the statement is secondhand, it's seemingly reinforced by LATAM Airlines' vague claims of a "technical problem." Reuters reports that New Zealand authorities plan to seize the data-collecting "black boxes" from the plane to learn exactly what happened. After months of controversy upon controversy from Boeing, this doesn't look promising- but hopefully, the black boxes will tell the whole tale.
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