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LAST UPDATE | 11 Mar 2024
TWELVE PASSENGERS WERE hospitalised today after a technical problem on a LATAM flight from Sydney to Auckland caused the plane to dip violently, the airline and first responders have told AFP.
At least one person was in serious condition after flight LA800 experienced an unspecified “technical event” over the Tasman Sea.
Passengers on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner told New Zealand media that the plane quickly lost altitude, flinging some towards the ceiling.
“People flew through the air because they weren’t wearing their seatbelts” a passenger told public broadcaster RNZ.
“Some people got pretty injured. People were really scared as well,” the unidentified man said, his voice shaking.
A spokesperson for the Chile-based airline said “a technical event during the flight” had “caused a strong movement”.
“The plane landed at Auckland Airport as scheduled,” the airline said, adding it “deeply regrets any inconvenience and discomfort this situation may have caused”.
It was not immediately clear what caused the incident.
“We are working to gather more information about the flight and will provide any support needed by our customer,” Boeing said in a statement sent to AFP.
Gerard Campbell of the St John New Zealand ambulance service said medics were first made aware of the problem as the plane descended into New Zealand’s largest city.
A phalanx of more than a dozen ambulances and other medical vehicles rushed to the scene to treat the wounded.
“Our ambulance crews assessed and treated approximately 50 patients, with one patient in a serious condition and the remainder in a moderate to minor condition,” Campbell said.
“Twelve patients were transported to hospital,” he said, after earlier putting the number at 13.
At least three of those treated were cabin crew.
‘Gathering information’
Brian Jokat, who was on board the flight, said he saw another passenger hit the roof of the plane before falling back down and breaking his ribs on an arm rest.
“He was on the roof of the plane on his back, looking down on me. It was like ‘The Exorcist’,” Jokat told RNZ, according to the NZ Herald.
He added that after the flight landed, the pilot came to the back of the plane.
“I asked him ‘what happened?’ and he said to me ‘I lost my instrumentation briefly and then it just came back all of a sudden’,” Jokat said.
“I know he felt really bad for everyone.”
Mobile phone footage posted by the NZ Herald showed concerned crew and passengers attending to one injured woman while flight attendants asked if there was a doctor aboard.
Data from airline tracker FlightAware showed the plane lost altitude about two hours into the three-hour flight.
US plane-maker Boeing has suffered a series of safety issues in recent years, including fatal Lion Air and Ethiopian Airlines crashes of 737 MAX planes.
Boeing is still reeling from a near-catastrophic incident in January when a fuselage panel on a Boeing 737 MAX 9 Alaska Airlines jet blew off mid-flight.
New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission said it was “aware of the reported incident” and was “gathering further information to inform a decision as to whether to open an inquiry”.
The incident could be investigated by Chilean authorities if it was found to have occurred in international airspace.
LATAM said passengers destined for Santiago would now leave New Zealand on Tuesday evening.
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I’d rather not whip my phone out in Dublin. Thanks tho.
@Niamh: never rang or accepted a phonecall or checked a text in Dublin before?
@Niamh: yeah sure you hardly see anybody on their phones in dublin these days ;-)
@Niamh: Embarrased about the outdated iPhone?
@Dave Murphy: Sure I take my phone out in Dublin all the time and never had a pro
@Niamh: yet as soon as you sit down on the bus what do people normally do next?……come on niamh!…
@Niamh: Do people even rob mobile phones anymore? Phone security is at a stage where most criminals know it isn’t a particularly lucrative business anymore. Phones are difficult to unlock these days. Was given an iPhone by my granny. She didn’t want it but she had forgotten the iCloud password, had no proof of purchase etc etc.. It wasn’t quick or easy to get sorted
@Siobhán Ni Mhurchú: Do you feel better that you took the time to write such a stupid sarcastic comment. I’ll stay with the swipe card I’d rather not whip my phone out in Dublin.
@Dave Murphy: no funnily enough I have such a good phone it’s safer not to take it out of my pocket in Dublin. Thanks.
@Eon Cocker: yes they rob them all the time actually.
@Niamh: nothing sarcastic about it .your comment was ridiculous.
I came here to see if people would moan about something inarguably positive. I’m not disappointed…
@RichieC: whinging on the Journal is de rigueur for a certain cohort
@DJ François:
Yup.
Online Liveline!
@Michael Kavanagh: I know a woman from Clontarf who has something to say about all of this…
Surprising this is an exclusive, it’s been the norm in many parts of the world for a long time. Surely the “tech centre” of Europe would eventually follow suit??
Making fancy announcements about little things, like this, is in lieu of actually building world-class transport infrastructure. Infrastructure which is still many years away because the powers-that-be don’t have the urgency that is required.
For example, the start date for the construction of MetroLink should be brought forward to next year, not 2021.
@J. Reid: Don’t be surprised if it does not get cancelled again……
@J. Reid: It’s almost as if the NTA are working on several multi-year projects at the same time and The Journal are reporting on all of them!
Why spend money setting up and administering an expensive system when a solution already exists. It’s called a bank card.
The cost of administering Oyster is the very reason why TfL pushes hard to have users use bank cards directly where possible.
Hopefully the tender is won by either a bank or a card issuer whose proposed implementation is precisely this.
@Gerard: but if you use a bank card here and don’t have free banking, you would pay an extra 30c per transaction.
@Sinead Regan: incorrect. Change your bank.
@Sinead Regan: 30c are contactless transactions not negligible!
@Gerard: Absolutely we should be able to use a bank debit card. Our daughter lives in London so we are over at least twice a month…hardly anyone uses Oyster Cards now most people just use their bank cards as the fare is the same….its so easy to use
@Gerard: I think the plan is you can use either. The app is aimed particularly at students who can avail of cheaper travel, not really possible with bank card
@Gerard: did you read the article ?
“In the coming years, NTA will incorporate the latest developments in account-based ticketing technology, allowing use of contactless credit and debit cards and mobile devices as a convenient means of payment,” the spokesperson said.”
Will they supply the phones?
I truly hope that this system will be available to slightly older adults too. It seems to be all about students. We use NFC too…
I for one will continue to have my cardboard train tickets ready for inspection and clipping.
I do wonder why the bus conductors are so slow lately. Must be on strike sgain.
Yeah, because I really want to be whipping out my phone at a LUAS stop.
At least if somebody lifts my leapcard i only lose what’s on it.
@Kendra Jackson: Do you ever look around you at Luas stops? Unless yours is located in the 1900s, everyone has their out while they wait.
This is nuts. Years behind and let’s not forget about NFC capable phones too either it’s not a mandatory technology built in
@James O’Brien:
… Did you miss the part where they are introducing other card types as well? Giving people additional options isn’t “nuts”.
@Sara O’Dowd: think you missed the point in relation to headline. Though I can see why.. Also we are way behind with NFC payments even with banking here alonsgside other things so this is why we once again suffer. NFC capable phones will be a standard when NFC becomes standard. Thanks.
If we could just get rid of the “having to validate” a pre-purchased online ticket before use I’d be 100% happier. It’s literally unfathomable that currently a bus driver cannot validate a ticket, yet a corner shop can ??? Mental
@Eon Cocker: when you buy a ticket online, it has to be written to the card somehow. The corner shop has an internet connection, your bus does not. This isn’t a problem with Leap, it’s the way smart cards work the world over.
But isnt it just as handy to use your phones nfc to top up the leap card
@Lisa Byrne: well a bank card would be handier altogether.
Wow, that’ll make such a difference to the infrastructure and service….
Will you be able to pay for taxis fares with this aswell as they come under the Nta ?
@eddie mallon: Surry bud, the machine is out of order there now.
Another screw up by the NTA. They really should stop and think at this stage.
@Gary Kearney: how so?
@Gary Kearney: By trying to provide more and easier options to pay for public transport?
@Gary Kearney: i don’t what is more mind boggling, this comment or the fact ten people liked it.
DO you mean they screwed up originally by not providing it or at least earlier like in London?
I think it’s a great step forward but I would be more than happy if they would make the top up app available on iOS.
We have literally been waiting years for it.
@Ciara Kenny Devlin: I believe that’s a problem with apple. They don’t allow any app (outside of Apple pay) to use the NFC (near field communication) chip in the phone. Nothing we can do on our side.
@Mick Hennessy: They could still have made an app that didn’t make use of NFC. All we wanted to be able to do is top up. Could have been linked to a bank account or debit card. The NFC is only really useful for validating pre-purchased tickets. The fact they need to be validated at all before use is a ridiculous obstruction put in place by Leap and TFI for no reason and has no benefit. A pre-paid ticket should be validated on first use regardless of what mode of transport you use
@Mick Hennessy: ‘nothing we can do on our side’ sums up the thinking….those pesky Apple lords are the problem…how about accepting Apple Pay on the buses ? God forbid we might actually try something the customers want…FFS
@Dave Hammond: I don’t work for NTA, Dublin Bus or anything like it, I just forgot who was in charge and said our side, meaning the side of those people in Ireland. And yeah, I totally agree, let’s use contactless terminals (which by default support google and apple pay) let’s have our cards on our phone, let’s improve things. I’m just saying, it’s not for the NTA to just “make the top up available on iOS” there’s more to it than that.
@Mick Hennessy: I understand Mick , as someone who works on the mobile sector and been living abroad its just frustrating to have to listen and watch some of our Irish mentality – as many people have pointed out Apple Pay is accepted on london tubes and trams and rail services to pay as you go and yet for all our talk about ireland being a tech hub and all the tech giants based here we are just way way too slow moving with the times – the inefficient public services need a massive overhaul and tech can play a key role in moving us into the 21st century in many sectors including transport / health / education etc etc – the only system they are making decent strides in is of course Revenue – the one that collects the government money – but almost every other major department in this country is in the dark ages – (wasn’t having go at your personally btw ) rants ends ;-)
Eircoach has this technology already
@Stephen Brennan: You’re right, Aircoach introduced payment with contactless cards and also phones.
https://www.irishexaminer.com/breakingnews/business/aircoach-now-offering-contactless-pay-on-board-870267.html
Great idea, I know is available in other places, but better late than never…
I wonder however how they’ll deal with people whos phones have died… There will be genuine cases, but I’d imagine it’ll be the number one excuse for not having a ticket.
I’m more baffled that this is news today than the news it contains… how is this an innovation??? The current system is so backwards that this is a catch-up activity, not an innovation
21st century here we come whoop whoop
That’s great news
Lol, yep any day now for this, NTA as successful as ever (◔_◔)
Great plan lads. Meanwhile, I still can’t top up my Leap on iOS…
More phone use
have your say