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This Monday, a sudden movement during flight LA800 traveling from Sydney to Santiago de Chile, with a stopover in Auckland, left around 50 people injured. Of these, 13 had to be treated in medical facilities in New Zealand’s capital. Most were discharged on the same day. National and foreign media dubbed the situation a “flight of terror” based on the accounts of passengers aboard the aircraft.

The incident is under investigation by the authorities, who have already recovered the black box of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner. LATAM arranged a special flight to continue the passengers’ itinerary to Chile. Lawyers are already hinting at the possible civil and criminal liabilities of the airline, which will depend on the findings of the investigation led by the Civil Aeronautics Board (DGAC) of our country.

Passengers from the flight arrived in Chile this Tuesday The arrival of passengers from the so-called “flight of terror” in our country generated expectation. They arrived on LA1130, a special itinerary activated by the airline so that passengers could reach Santiago, the original final destination. Queried by the media stationed at the location, Verónica Martínez described the situation as a “roller coaster”. She mentioned that “the experience was horrible, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. At one moment the plane just dropped, went into a nosedive, there were people and things flying.”

“We were taken to a hotel, some people were given food and others weren’t. Some people were taken out of the hotel at 3 in the afternoon. My group was taken out at 12, by 1 we were at the airport. They left us stranded at the airport. They only showed up at 4 in the afternoon to give us a lunch voucher, but by that time almost all of us had already spent money on lunch,” the passenger complained. According to LATAM’s records, the flight took off at 18:40 from Auckland.

Clara Azevedo, a 28-year-old woman from Brisbane who was on the flight, told The West Australian that passengers who were unharmed were given a single McDonald’s cheeseburger while waiting at the airport after landing. Diego Valenzuela, another traveler on the flight, recounted that “for 3 or 4 seconds in free fall, and then many injured (…) People who weren’t wearing seatbelts got somewhat injured.”

DGAC is in charge of the investigation The Civil Aeronautics Board (DGAC) of Chile reported that it will take charge of the investigation. This is because the incident occurred in international airspace, and as the incident involved a Chilean-registered aircraft, it corresponds to our country’s aeronautical authority to lead this process. As reported by the agency on Tuesday afternoon, a team of investigators from the Operations and Airworthiness area was traveling to Auckland, New Zealand. Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission reported the seizure of LATAM’s Boeing Dreamliner’s black box with the aim of recovering cockpit voice recordings and flight logs. ”

All the information is recorded in the black box and voice recordings. There are a series of devices that store information inside the cockpit. This should be known within a short time frame (…) a month,” said Julio Subercaseaux, pilot and aeronautical consultant, to CHV News. Subercaseaux’s hypothesis is that there could have been a low-speed indication. “When the plane is at a certain flight level, but for some reason starts to lift its nose, it loses lift, which is called a stall, and that produces a nosedive. It’s a technical issue that can be due to multiple variables.”

Potential civil and criminal liabilities Tito Lorenzo Muñoz, president of the Institute of Aeronautical Law, indicated to Meganoticias that “the prosecutor’s office must initiate an investigation ex officio in this regard. Other types of criminal liabilities will arise, such as quasi-crime of injuries or culpable injury offense for the injuries that this group of people suffered.”

Meanwhile, Peter Carter, an Australian lawyer specializing in aviation and director of Carter Capner Law, recalled the case of QF72, a Qantas flight traveling from Singapore to Perth in 2008, which also experienced an uncontrolled drop over the Indian Ocean causing serious injuries onboard. “When a passenger goes through an experience like this, it’s terrifying, and besides many serious physical injuries, there can be long-term psychological damage,” states the lawyer, who believes that in this case, compensation could also be demanded.

LATAM’s crisis communication management During Monday, LATAM Airlines released three press statements that accounted for the evolving information about flight LA800. Initially, the airline described the situation as a “technical event”. A term that they would subsequently no longer use, replacing it with “strong movement”. The second statement reported the number of injured passengers.

The airline announced that seven passengers and three cabin crew members, later rising to 13 people in total, were injured. This occurred while the media in Australia, New Zealand, and Chile spoke of approximately 50 people. Later, the third statement referred to the nationalities of the injured. Indeed, there was a discrepancy in criteria. While local authorities in Auckland reported that about fifty passengers required some form of medical attention —which was echoed by the press—, the airline based its figures on those cases that had to be transferred to Middlemore Hospital.

Juan José Tohá, director of Corporate Affairs of LATAM Airlines Group So far, one of the few public appearances by the company was made by Juan José Tohá, director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability of LATAM Airlines Group, in a video broadcast on Tele13 on Tuesday night. “We sent an additional airplane as soon as possible so they could continue their journey. We will continue working to contact all the passengers of this flight to be able to attend to their needs,” explained the executive.

In any case, several actors in the industry recognize that, being a situation that is under investigation, the company is limited to explaining practical information about the contingency, such as the number of injured, assistance to passengers, and the scheduling of the additional flight. However, passengers are not satisfied. Thais Iwamaoto, a 26-year-old woman from Sydney, told the NZ Herald that she was frustrated by the lack of information from the airline. “It’s just ridiculous, so disorganized after what we’ve been through,” she stated. “This (LATAM’s communications) is something I want to talk to them about because it’s not right. It’s simply not fair. Accidents happen, but the way we are treated, that’s not what it’s supposed to be,” she said.