The pilot of a terrifying flight from Australia to New Zealand told passengers on board that he temporarily lost control of his Boeing 787 after one of its instruments failed, a passenger said Monday, as authorities investigate the incident. which caused a sudden crash that threw travelers around the cabin and left dozens of people injured.
The incident aboard LATAM Airlines Flight 800 from Sydney to Auckland is the latest to hit aircraft maker Boeing, which has been rocked by years of quality and safety problems.
Passenger Brian Jokat described the horrific moment when he was woken from his sleep when the aircraft “dropped about 500 feet (152 m) instantly.”
“That’s when I opened my eyes and there were several individuals at the top of the plane. Just stuck to the ceiling and then fell to the floor. And then I realized I'm not in a movie, this is actually real,” he told journalist Erin Burnett of CNN .
After landing in Auckland, Jokat said the pilot checked that the passengers were OK and explained that he had temporarily lost control of the jet.
I immediately spoke to him and said, 'What was that?' And he openly admitted it, he said, 'I lost control of the plane. My gauges kind of went blank,” Jokat said.
“He said in that brief moment that he couldn’t control anything and that’s when the plane did what it did. Then he said the gauges came back, the plane returned to its normal flight pattern. And we had no problems before or after. But only at that moment.”
The plane, operated by the Chilean company, was a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
LATAM said on Monday (11) that the plane “had a technical event during the flight that caused a strong movement”, adding that it landed as scheduled in Auckland.
In a statement to CNN On Tuesday, Boeing said it was “working to gather more information about the flight and will provide any necessary support to our customer.”
Around 50 people were injured in the incident, with one person in serious condition, emergency services said.
Jokat said he feared for his life when he saw other passengers fly out of their seats and hit the ceiling of the plane.
“People were screaming and crying. And yes, it was mass chaos for a few seconds,” he said. “Clearly there was a moment in my head where I kind of resigned myself to the fact that this could be the end. It could be the end.”
Boeing's problems
As investigators struggle to figure out what may have caused the sudden crash, the incident comes at a difficult time for Boeing.
The US manufacturer has faced fierce criticism for a range of quality and safety issues in recent years, with many critics saying the company has shifted its focus in recent decades to financial results at the cost of safety and quality in its aircraft.
They include two fatal 737 Max jet crashes due to a design flaw in the plane, numerous delivery halts due to quality control issues and, most recently, a portion of the fuselage that was sucked out of a new 737 Max operated by Alaska Airlines. in January, leaving a hole in the side of the plane.
Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration in February flagged safety problems with the engine anti-icing systems of the 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner.
The safety regulator continues to allow both models of the plane to fly despite the potential problems. Both issues are going through the FAA's standard process for developing airworthiness guidelines — rather than an emergency process — signaling that the agency and the planemaker do not believe the issues are serious enough to require the planes to stop flying. immediately.
The FAA said Monday that it has given Boeing until the end of May to produce a plan to correct problems identified in a federal audit and other reviews, including an employee safety culture survey and a separate report from the panel. that left workers worried about retaliation for reporting safety concerns.
FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he expects the company to produce “a very detailed plan over the next 90 days to fix the quality issues that are out there.”
Boeing said it is working on several of the issues identified by Whitaker.
Source: CNN Brasil
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