A new report on the horrific mid-air plunge of a LATAM flight into Auckland has confirmed a crucial detail surrounding the incident that left 50 passengers injured during the journey from Sydney to Auckland on March 11.
The preliminary report from the Directorate General of Civil Aviation in Chile (DGAC) states the pilot's seat moved forward involuntarily just before the aircraft experienced a sudden loss of altitude, dropping from 41,000 to 40,692 feet approximately 55 minutes before landing.
This backs up an earlier report of the incident being caused by the seat movement that was "pilot induced, not intentionally", which triggered Boeing issuing a warning to 787 operators.
The DGAC's preliminary report confirms that the left-side cockpit seat - which the captain was sitting in - "began an involuntary forward movement", adding that turbulence and weather "were not causal or contributing factors in the operation" (translated from Spanish).
Among the injured were three cabin crew members and 10 passengers who required hospitalisation.
Inspections were conducted on the aircraft at Auckland Airport and the New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) provided the Chilean authorities substantial data as well as the Enhanced Airborne Flight Recorder (EAFR) equipment to aid their investigation.
The aircraft's black box and the pilot seat remain in Chile, but will be sent on to the US for further investigations by the Federal Aviation Administration and Boeing.
A previous Wall Street Journal report into the incident claimed a flight attendant accidentally hit a switch on the back of the pilot's seat, causing it to push them into the controls and force the plane into its dangerous nose dive.
