AVIATION
At least 50 injured on flight from Sydney to Auckland
March 11, 2024 - Fifty people were hurt and 12 were taken to hospital after a plane travelling from Australia to New Zealand experienced a mid-air “technical event”.
The Boeing 787 flight from Sydney to Auckland, operated by Chilean airline LATAM, experienced a sudden loss of altitude about two hours into the three-hour flight.
People were injured after hitting the roof, with some thrown around the plane.
The cause of the incident could not be ascertained immediately.
U.S. 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.
Shares of the planemaker were down 1.4% in premarket trading on Monday, coming under pressure from a report that U.S. Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation into 737 MAX mid-air blowout on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.