Passengers on board a plane that fell from the sky, injuring 50 people, are furious at the way they were treated by the airline after they were given a small meal in compensation.
Multiple emergency vehicles rushed to Auckland International Airport on Monday after a Latam Airlines flight from Sydney to Auckland lost altitude and threw passengers against the ceiling.
The St. John ambulance treated the injured and transported thirteen of them to hospital, while the remaining passengers were given a single McDonald’s cheeseburger while they waited to find out what would happen next.
The ‘traumatized’ travelers on flight LA800, a Boeing 787-9, did not receive a meal again until Tuesday morning.
Thais Iwamoto, 26, from Sydney, said Latam’s lack of support and poor communication is “something I want to talk to them about because it’s not OK.” It’s just not fair.
After being thrown through the plane, with some passengers bouncing off the ceiling, overhead bins and seats, the flight was met by multiple emergency responders and vehicles at Auckland International Airport. The Latam aircraft is shown
Passenger Janet Baker prepares to check in at Auckland International Airport in New Zealand for a rescheduled Latam Airlines flight to Santiago, Chile on Tuesday, March 12, 2024
“Accidents happen, but the way they treat us is not what it should be,” she told police. New Zealand herald.
Clara Azevedo, a 28-year-old Brisbane woman who was also on the flight, said that although she was not injured herself, she had spent the entire night in a hospital translating for an elderly woman who broke two ribs and left her injured his shoulder and didn’t speak English.
‘We are all traumatized and we had to find strength to help people. But this is not our responsibility, it is Latam’s – but they have done nothing. That is very frustrating,” Ms. Azevedo said.
Another Australian passenger, Jacob Thompson, 33, hit his head in what Latam calls a “strong jolt” while his partner was “thrown down the aisle.”
“We didn’t know if we were going to make the landing,” he said, adding that what happened “didn’t feel like turbulence” and that he had never felt anything like it.
The passengers who were not taken to hospital were taken to a hotel in Auckland around 2am on Tuesday morning.
Breakfast there was the first meal they had since the cheeseburger at the airport.
Ms. Azevedo and the injured woman for whom she spent the night translating must catch the rescheduled flight to Santiago, Chile, the final destination of flight LA800, at 8 p.m. tonight.
She said she is “terrified” and hopes to get something to help her sleep throughout the trip to South America.
The flight path of Latam Airlines’ LA800 Dreamliner service from Sydney to Auckland is pictured
As of Tuesday evening, four passengers are being treated at Middlemore Hospital for ‘significant’ injuries.
Latam said the injured passengers were from Brazil, France, Australia, Chile and New Zealand.
A spokesperson said the airline is “working in coordination with the respective authorities to support the investigation into the incident” and that it has “provided food, accommodation and transportation to affected passengers due to the flight cancellation.”
New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission said Chile is responsible for investigating the incident as it occurred in international airspace.
In the photo, a passenger on board flight LA800 is being treated on the floor of the plane on Monday