“The experience was horrible,” said Chilean resident Verónica Martínez, who was on flight LAN800 from Australia to New Zealand on Monday.
She said that everything was normal until the plane “kind of shut down – went down. [There were] people flying – things flying.”
Martínez said she was not injured because she was wearing a seat belt, but she saw some people, including a baby, flying through the cabin. She described that moment as being on a “roller coaster.”
Dozens of people were injured after LATAM Airlines flight 800 from Sydney, Australia to Auckland, New Zealand experienced a “technical event” on Monday that produced a sudden movement, the flight operator reported.
Another passenger, Diego Valenzuela, who also spoke to the media upon leaving the airport on Tuesday, said that “for 3, 4 seconds, [it was] a free fall, and afterward, many were injured.”
Martínez and Valenzuela both said they felt relieved to be on Chilean soil.
It’s unclear how many people who arrived in Santiago from Auckland on Tuesday were involved in Monday’s incident.
CNN has reached out to the airline for more information.
A team of Chilean aviation authorities has been sent to Auckland to investigate the incident, Chile’s Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics (DGAC) said on Tuesday.
The DGAC communications office told CNN that the team is made up of four members, who will be given the plane’s flight recorders, commonly known as black boxes, for analysis. A technician from New Zealand will also join the investigation.
Approximately 50 people were treated for injuries upon arrival in Auckland, including one in serious condition, emergency medical services provider Hato Hone St John Ambulance told CNN.
The affected passengers and cabin crew “received immediate assistance and were evaluated or treated by medical staff at the airport as needed,” LATAM Airlines said in a statement to CNN.
No further details were given about what caused the incident.
CNN
