LATAM Chile B789 over Tasman Sea on Mar 11th 2024, upset injures 12

Last Update: April 19, 2024 / 18:24:54 GMT/Zulu time

Bookmark this article

Photo of LATAM Airlines Chile CC-BGG, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner — LATAM Airlines Chile CC-BGG, Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner (Photo credit: Anna Zvereva / Flickr / License: CC by-sa)

Incident Facts

Date of incident
Mar 11, 2024

Classification
Accident

Airline
LATAM Airlines Chile

Flight number
LA-800

Departure
Sydney, Australia

Destination
Auckland, New Zealand

Aircraft Registration
CC-BGG

Aircraft Type
Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner

ICAO Type Designator
B789

A LATAM Chile Boeing 787-9, registration CC-BGG performing flight LA-800 from Sydney,NS (Australia) to Auckland (New Zealand) with 263 passengers and 9 crew, was enroute at FL410 over the Tasman Sea when the aircraft encountered an upset causing injuries to 12 people on board. The aircraft continued to Auckland for a landing without further incident. A number of passengers were assessed at the airport, 12 people were taken to a local hospital.

The airline reported the aircraft encountered a technical incident causing strong movement of the aircraft.

Local emergency services reported they assessed about 50 people at the airport and took 12 people to a hospital. One person was in a serious condition.

Passengers reported the aircraft encountered a sudden dive causing passengers to feel weightless and everything not fastened to hit the cabin ceiling about 50 minutes before landing, there was blood at the ceiling. The captain later said they had briefly lost their instrumentation, then it came back all of the sudden.

New Zealand's TAIC as well as Australia's ATSB reported that the investigation will be conducted by Chile's Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil because the accident occurred over international waters. Australian media report that the ATSB sees the accident linked to the risk of flight systems resetting simultaneously.

On Dec 2nd 2016 the FAA had issued their airworthiness directive AD 2016–24–09 summarizing: "We are adopting a new airworthiness directive (AD) for all The Boeing Company Model 787–8 and 787–9 airplanes. This AD requires repetitive cycling of either the airplane electrical power or the power to the three flight control modules (FCMs). This AD was prompted by a report indicating that all three FCMs might simultaneously reset if continuously powered on for 22 days. We are issuing this AD to address the unsafe condition on these products."

On Mar 15th 2024 Boeing released a message to operators of all Boeing 787 variants referencing another message sent out in 2017 advising operators to apply adhesives to the rocker (pilot seat movement) switch caps to prevent them from coming loose. The new message states:

Boeing and Flight Deck seat supplier, Ipeco, advise the 787 fleet of a known condition related to a loose/detached rocker switch cap on the fore/aft auxiliary rocker switch. This rocker switch is located on the seat back of both Captain and First Officer seats. Closing the spring-loaded seat back switch guard onto a loose/detached rocker switch cap can potentially jam the rocker switch, resulting in unintended seat movement.

Unintended fore/aft seat movement (due to a jammed seat back rocker switch) can be stopped with the emergency power cutoff switch, or by holding depressed the fore/aft rocker switch located on the inboard side of the seat pan in the direction opposite to the seat movement, or by holding depressed the manual fore/aft control lever on the inboard side of the seat pan to declutch the horizontal actuator. Please note that inputting an opposing fore/aft switch command will stop powered movement only for the duration that the seat software sees opposing commands. As soon as one of the fore/aft switches is released, the seat will resume movement following the remaining command. The preferred option is to shut off power using the power cut-off switch, but if the occupant is not able to reach that switch, the other options will halt the seat powered movement until power can be shut off. Boeing is evaluating potential updates to the appropriate Flight Crew Manual.

On Apr 19th 2024 Chile's DGAC released their preliminary report in Spanish summarizing the sequence of events:

The aviation event that occurred on March 11, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. local time in NZ and according to the information collected in Auckland NZ and later in Santiago de Chile, the flight crew was composed of a pilot in command (Captain) and a First Officer, along with 7 cabin crew and 263 passengers, on board the aircraft Boeing, model 787-916, registration CC-BGG which took off from the Airport Sydney Kingsford Smith International (YSSY), Australia, to the Airport Auckland International (NZAA), New Zealand. Then, while the aircraft was en route with flight level 410, in international airspace and for reasons which are the subject of investigation, had a sudden unintentional decrease, which could have been recovered by the flight crew.

As a result of the above, 3 auxiliary cabin crew and 10 passengers were with injuries of varying degrees (1 auxiliary cabin crew member, 1 passenger Chilean nationality and a passenger of Australian nationality, were hospitalized for the severity of their injuries).

The DGAC stated following facts were proven:

- At the time of the event, the aircraft was established at flight level 041 (41,000 feet) (editorial comment: typo in the Spanish original indeed).

- The seat on the left side of the cabin, with the captain in his position, began a involuntary forward movement.

- The recovery of the aircraft by the flight crew from a condition of involuntary descent of approximately 400 feet, did not exceed the loads positive or negative permitted by the manufacturer for this type of flight condition.

- The weather conditions and the lack of turbulence on the route at the time of the event, were not causal or contributing factors in the operation.