New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission has said that it would seize the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder of a LATAM Airlines which recently nosedived leaving 50 passengers injured.
The incident occurred aboard the Sydney-Auckland flight on Monday that had 263 passengers and nine crew members on board.
The incident resulted in the hospitalisation of 10 passengers and three cabin crew members. The flight eventually land successfully in Auckland.
The Chilean flagship carrier flies regularly to Santiago from Australia and stops in Auckland.
“Flight LA800, operating the Sydney-Auckland route today, had a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement,” Latam said in a statement
New Zealand has said that Chilean authorities had confirmed that they have opened a probe into the flight, and it was assisting with their enquiries. The New Zealand civil aviation authority has said that it would also assist in the investigations if required.
Officials have said that so far, the exact cause of the apparent sudden change in trajectory has not been ascertained as investigators are trying to figure out the reasons.
A statement issued by Chile’s Directorate General of Civil Aeronautics said, “We regret the situation experienced by passengers, while we reiterate our commitment to the safety of air operations.”
Over the past few years, Boeing has been at the centre of controversies following incidents of malfunction on its planes.
In an earlier incident in 2022, United Airlines flight 1722 had left Maui on December 18 and suddenly plummeted 1,400 feet. It, however, stabilised at just 775 feet in altitude and went on to land safely in San Francisco 27 minutes early.
But passengers of China Eastern Airlines were not so lucky. The Boeing 737-800 model, that was flying from Kunming to Ghangzhou with 132 on board suddenly plunged killing everyone onboard.
There has been renewed debate over the length of cockpit recordings in the aviation industry since it was revealed voice recorder data on the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max 9 jet that lost a panel midflight in January was overwritten.
