LATAM Airlines Flight 800
LATAM Airlines Chile Boeing 787-9 · In-flight upset
From Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD) to Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)
Event
- NTSB case
- DCA24WA125
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Unknown · led by another country; figures from NTSB notifications
- Event fatalities
- 0 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 272
- Survivors
- 272
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 50
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Not recorded
Boeing 787-9
- Flight
- LA800
- Aircraft type
- Boeing 787
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- CC-BGG
- Operator
- LATAM Airlines Chile
- Onboard fatalities
- 0
- Route
- From Sydney Kingsford Smith International Airport (SYD)To Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Non-U.S., Commercial
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- En route
- Defining eventThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- Abrupt maneuver
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Minor
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
LATAM Airlines Flight 800 was a scheduled international passenger flight from Sydney, Australia to Santiago, Chile, with a stopover at Auckland, New Zealand. On 11 March 2024, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner which operated that flight experienced an in-flight upset around two hours into the first leg of the flight. Of the 272 people on board, 50 were injured, with 12 taken to hospital after landing in Auckland.
Accident
LATAM Airlines Flight 800 departed from Sydney Airport at 11:44 AEDT (00:44 UTC), climbing to cruise at flight level 410 (equal to 41,000 ft).
While the flight was over the Tasman Sea, around two hours into the flight and one hour away from Auckland, the aircraft dropped suddenly. In a few seconds, the plane lost over 300 ft of altitude. People and objects that were not restrained were thrown upwards, with around 30 to 40 people hitting the ceiling of the cabin, damaging multiple ceiling panels. One passenger said it felt "like an earthquake", and another recalled being thrown back four to five seat rows.
The aircraft continued to Auckland as scheduled, landing at 16:26 NZDT (03:26 UTC). Medical staff boarded the plane at Auckland Airport and treated the wounded, tending to 50 people, with reports of cuts and bruises, head and neck injuries, and broken bones. Twelve people were transported to the hospital, including one person in a serious condition. Four people were still hospitalised as of 14 March 2024.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
As the incident occurred on a Chilean-registered aircraft over international waters, the Chilean Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGAC) is responsible for investigating the incident, and began an inquiry on 12 March 2024. The New Zealand Transport Accident Investigation Commission (TAIC) assisted in the inquiry. The flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder from the aircraft were recovered by the TAIC.
A passenger reported a pilot told them after landing that the instruments in the cockpit went blank when the plane fell, then came back online a few seconds later. It has also been reported that the inadvertent movement of a pilot's seat possibly caused the incident. A flight attendant could somehow have activated a covered rocker switch on the back of the pilot's seat. If the cover was loose, pressing on it would be enough to activate the switch underneath when it otherwise normally would not have. The activation of this switch would have slowly moved the seat forward into the control yoke, resulting in the nose down attitude, disengaging the autopilot, according to US industry officials.
Final report
On 22 February 2026, the DGAC released their final report on the accident. The report concluded that the captain exerted pressure on the control column sensor due to his accidental seat movement, which overrode the autopilot causing a temporary loss of control.
Text from the Wikipedia article “LATAM Airlines Flight 800” (revision 1371298861, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: LATAM Airlines Flight 800
- Article
- LATAM Airlines Flight 800
- Revision
- 1371298861 · 2026-08-25 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q124827159
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
NTSB record DCA24WA125
- Event ID
- 20240312193929
- Case number
- DCA24WA125
- Dataset
- full-current
- Source SHA-256
- 5cf380f0061817c0331a6b2d8cc7e0ee3a79bea469a1001dc5c10e56f35f5ab3
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "LATAM Airlines Flight 800" (page 76339398, revision 1371298861); merged with NTSB case DCA24WA125 (events / aircraft)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports); gaps and aircraft details from NTSB record DCA24WA125
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia: Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- Wikipedia: not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (3)
- One occurrence in two sources, merged: the Wikipedia article "LATAM Airlines Flight 800" and NTSB case DCA24WA125, matched by the same aircraft registration and date. For this event outside the United States Wikipedia's values are used where the two differ; each value names its source.
- The NTSB record dates it 2024-03-12 and the Wikipedia article 2024-03-11; Wikipedia's date is used.
- No bulk values were replaced by the NTSB case API.