Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2024/03/11/another-boeing-disaster-as-plane-nosedives-causing-50-injuries-30-who-are-tossed-up-to-roof.html
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This may have been a technical glitch, or it may have been a freak turbulence.
Boeing jokes aside, the real lesson is that you ALWAYS keep your seatbelt closed during a flight except for using the toilet.
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I have been on a flight that hit massive turbulence with no warning while flying over the Atlantic. 2 Kids in front of me both ended up smashing against the ceiling, with multiple other passengers plane wide doing the same. One of the kids cut his head open on the air vent. That was not a fun rest of the flight. Every time we would hit a little bump, people would get OUT OF THEIR SEATS to pray in the aisle.
It was drilled into me from a young age that if you are in your seat, the belt stays on. ( I have multiple commercial and non-commercial pilots in my family )
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No announcement at all from the crew? Geez…
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Abrupt loss of altitude is one event. Nosedive and abrupt loss of altitude is two. This one sounds, as others have commented, not like a nosedive, but like abrupt loss of altitude caused by severe turbulence. That could cause a quick downward acceleration of a plane oriented straight and level, and would explain people thrown up to the ceiling. Such turbulence would probably make it not a Boeing- or airline-specific event, just a fine demonstration of one of the risks of flying. Wear that seatbelt!
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An omniscient deity can hear you with your seatbelt securely fastened.
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“Trust God and keep your seat belt fastened.”
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A spokesperson for LATAM in an earlier statement described the incident as a “technical event”
A technical event? Like dressage or compulsory figures in ice-skating? It sounds like some of the accidental entrants mush have scored highly on the difficulty element.
@geoduck Maybe they were busy?
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Are there suddenly more Boeing incidents happening since the door plug event, or are we seeing the same number of incidents and they’re just being reported more?
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WTF? How did the crew allow this?
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It sounds so silly when they ask you to wear your seatbelt whenever you are seated but yeah wear your seat belt whenever you are seated. It might keep you inside the plane or off the roof the of the plane.
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I’ll just leave this here:
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I completely agree, but when we flew with our kids when they were 2 and 4 years old, it was pretty impossible to keep them belted properly.
Just one of the risks you take flinging yourself across the ocean at 600+ mph.
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LATAM describing it as a “technical event” makes me think it was either pilot error or some mechanical/software/etc error.
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Can’t help but think of Michael Crichton’s Airframe when I read of the incident (not a disaster).
That (excellent) story was inspired by China Eastern Airlines Flight 583 where passengers on a brand new MD-11 were injured by violent oscillations when a member of the crew extended the slats during high-speed cruise. The report into the China Eastern flight is here if you fancy a spot of late-night reading on your red-eye.
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I would imagine they did not allow this, and likely asked those praying to kindly get TF back into their seats and buckle TF up. Or similar words.
I suspect the flight crew were also buckled in and not unbuckling, which limited what they could do. Coincidentally, “not unbuckling” is exactly what I would do.
Me too, but that description might mean something else, with its meaning is blurred by a Spanish-to-English translation issue?
ETA: Nope, it was not a translation issue. If this passenger understood the pilot correctly, the instrument panel went blank, briefly.
Looks like Boeing has more explaining to do.
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Passengers, speaking to local media, described seeing people being thrown to the ceiling and then falling to the floor…
Good thing the top wasn’t down.
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That’s almost as dumb as storing 100 tons of gunpowder in a church because god would never strike a church.
One passenger said that after the plane landed the pilot went to the cabin, and told him that the flight displays went blank and he lost control of the plane untl they came back.
It’s not clear if that caused the sudden drop, or if it was the drop itself that made the controls glitch.
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That would be bad.
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