Boeing 787-9 experiences 'technical problem' – lands 24 people in hospital

abc.net.au

10 points·smcleod··8 comments

Open articleView on HN

> One woman onboard the flight said she experienced a “quick little drop” during the flight.

> “I used to be a flight attendant and this is the first time I’ve ever ... the whole plane just froze,” she said.

Note: I edited the title to keep in under the character limit and to give context relevant to recent discussions.

Additional news sources:

- https://www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/350209071/sydney-auckland-fl...

- https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/large-emergency-response-at-au...

- https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/511423/24-people-treated...

Sounds like an air pocket event from the description; hitting a pocket of different temperature air that has a different viscosity to the surrounding environment. It's still summertime in the southern hemisphere so pockets of warm air in an otherwise cool cruising altitude might be involved. An hour away from Auckland could mean they were on a descent path as well, which implies dropping through different layers of the atmosphere, too.

Sounds like shitty turbulence; let's see what the investigation reveals.

Pilot saying instrumentation failure - https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/i-lost-my-ability-to-fl...

As trust breaks down, it seems like any problem is a reason to suspect it's Boeing's fault...

Trust is a soap bubble, takes time to make big and plops at the slightest touch.

I would say that Boeing has had more than the slightest bit of problems in recent years.

And it likely is: https://www.cnn.com/2024/03/12/australia/latam-airlines-flig...

https://www.smh.com.au/world/oceania/i-lost-my-ability-to-fl...

> "the pilot came to the back of the Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner “in shock”, Jokat said.

> "I asked ‘what happened’ and he said ‘my gauges just blanked out, I lost all of my ability to fly the plane’."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com