A LATAM Airlines passenger says the pilot told him he lost control of the Boeing plane after an instrument malfunction

CNN
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The captain of a terrifying flight from Australia to New Zealand told those on board that he temporarily lost control of his Boeing 787 after one of its devices malfunctioned, a passenger said Monday, as authorities investigated the cause of the sudden crash that led to passengers being thrown. About the cabin. Dozens were injured.

In accordance with rules set by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), Chile's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) sent investigators from the agency's Operations and Airworthiness Team to look into the incident, according to a statement issued on Tuesday.

“Given that the country of registry of the aircraft in question is Chilean, it has been assured by the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) that the investigation will be conducted by the Chilean Aviation Authority,” the statement read.

The accident on LATAM Airlines Flight 800 from Sydney to Auckland is the latest to hit struggling planemaker Boeing, which has been rocked by years of quality and safety issues.

Passenger Brian Jukat described the horrific moment when he woke up from his sleep when the plane “immediately dropped something at 500 feet.”

“Then I opened my eyes and there were different people at the top of the plane. They just stuck to the ceiling and then fell to the ground. Then I just realized that I'm not in a movie, and this is actually real.”

After landing in Auckland, Gokat said the pilot checked the passengers and explained that he had temporarily lost control of the plane.

“I immediately approached him and said, 'What is this?' He publicly admitted: I lost control of the plane. “My metrics are kind of empty,” Gukat said.

“He said for that brief moment that he couldn't control anything and that's when the plane did what it did. Then he said the instruments came back and turned them back on, and the plane went back to its normal flight pattern. We had no problems before, and no problems after that. But just that moment ”

The plane, operated by Chile's national airline, was a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.

LATAM said on Monday that the plane “experienced a technical incident during flight causing a strong motion,” 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 support our customer needs.”

Emergency services said about 50 people were injured in the accident, one of them in serious condition.

Gokat said he feared for his life when he saw his fellow passengers getting out of their seats and hitting the roof of the plane.

“People were screaming and crying. And yes, there was complete chaos for a few short seconds.” “Obviously there was a moment in my head where I kind of resigned myself to the fact that this could be the case. “Maybe this is it.”

As investigators seek to discover the possible cause of this sudden decline, the incident comes at a difficult time for Boeing.

The American manufacturer has faced heavy criticism for a series of quality and safety issues in recent years, with many critics saying that the company has shifted its focus in the past few decades to… Financial results at the expense of safety and quality On its planes.

They include Two fatal accidents of the 737 MAX due to a design flaw in the aircraft, several deliveries were halted due to quality control issues, and, most recently, Door plug that exploded of a new 737 MAX operated by Alaska Airlines in January, leaving a large gap in the side of the plane.

Meanwhile, the Federal Aviation Administration in February reported safety issues with engine anti-icing systems on the larger 737 MAX and 787 Dreamliner aircraft.

The safety regulator continues to allow both models of the plane to fly despite the potential problems. Both cases move through the FAA's standard process for developing airworthiness directives — rather than an emergency process — suggesting that the agency and the planemaker do not believe the problems are serious enough to require the planes to stop flying immediately.

The Federal Aviation Administration said Monday it has given Boeing until late May to prepare a plan to address problems identified in the federal audit and other reviews, including a safety culture survey of employees and a separate panel report that found workers concerned about retaliation for reporting safety concerns.

FAA Administrator Mike Whitaker said he expected the company to produce “a very detailed plan within the next 90 days to fix the quality issues that exist.”

Boeing said it is working to resolve many of the issues identified by Whitaker.