Passengers have criticised the airline over its poor communication following the incident.
Video / Alyse Wright
New images have emerged of the Latam aircraft which plunged without warning on a Sydney-Auckland flight showing its wing heavily covered in tape just days before the terrifying incident occurred.
The plane was last night heading back to its base in Chile as a new theory emerges about the cause of the sudden plunge.
Flightradar24 shows the Boeing Dreamliner heading towards the Southern Ocean after leaving Auckland shortly after 2pm today on a non-scheduled flight.
The aircraft is now the centre of an international investigation after it fell nose down for around 100m on Monday, throwing unrestrained passengers and crew about the cabin causing injuries to about 50 people, with 12 needing hospital treatment.
Yesterday, the 8-year-old aircraft was cruising at 40,000 feet three hours after leaving Auckland on the unscheduled flight. The scheduled flight with passengers to Santiago is due to leave Auckland at 6.40pm.
The starboard wing of Latam Air Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner CC-BGG is pictured covered in tape just days prior to the March 11 sudden plunge during a flight from Sydney to Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Meanwhile, a photo has emerged of heavy use of tape on the wing of the aircraft registered CC-BGG days before it was involved in Monday’s incident. Passengers who had flown in the plane were concerned about it.
A woman who flew on a Latam aircraft has provided a similar photo from a flight from Sydney to Auckland in late January. She said he noticed the same heavy tape on a wing during that flight.
A passenger on a Latam Airlines flight looks out a window at the plane's wing which is heavily covered in tape as the flight flies over Auckland in January. Photo / Supplied
“When I saw how old the plane was I was terrified. The wings were being held together by what looked like black masking tape. I’m certainly not surprised by this recent incident.”
Another passenger has sent a photo of heavily taped Latam wing to the Herald and said they had never seen anything like it before.
A Latam spokeswoman said the tape in the latest image is aeronautical tape (also known as high speed tape).
“The use of aeronautical tape is approved by regulators, aviation authorities and aircraft manufacturers, and is only used temporarily for paint loss on the aircraft wing, without affecting the operability of the aircraft. Latam Airlines prioritises safety above everything.”
Boeing in 2022 said that operators of its 787 Dreamliner jetliners had experienced paint peeling issues on wing and horizontal stabilizer surfaces due to ultraviolet radiation exposure. Boeing’s interim fix involved repeated use of “speed tape” over affected areas.
‘‘Even though the use of speed tape has no effect on the safety of the airplane, the public could perceive an unsafe condition when seeing tape on the wing surfaces,’' Boeing said then.
Professor Doug Drury, head of aviation at Central Queensland University agreed the tape was used sometimes and there was no way the aircraft would be released for flying if it was unsafe.
Aviation experts have previously said the that while it may look like duct tape, the material used on aircraft wings is actually an aluminium-based material known in the aviation world as speed tape, which is safe for certain types of repairs.
Latam is so far saying little about Monday’s incident but has said the plane had a technical problem during the flight which “caused a strong movement”.
One passenger said he was told by a pilot that instruments went blank and he momentarily lost control of the plane with 272 passengers and crew on board. An international investigation has been launched.
Another theory emerging today is that the movement of a seat on the flight deck could have interfered with systems, but Drury said the seats were designed so this couldn’t happen and he regarded that as an unlikely cause.
The starboard wing of a Latam Air Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner covered in tape. A similar plane took a sudden plunge this week during flight LA801 from Sydney to Auckland. Photo / Supplied
Under the International Convention on Aviation, the Direccion General de Aeronautica Civil (DGAC) - the Chilean accident investigation authority - is responsible for investigating the accident and has requested help from New Zealand’s Transport Accident Investigation Commission.
The commission has seized the cockpit voice and flight data recorders from the plane and were now in “a secure location”.
The National Transportation Safety Board in the United States could become involved as that’s the base of Boeing, which is facing other safety investigations into its troubled 737 Max.
Grant Bradley has been working at the Herald since 1993. He is the Business Herald’s deputy editor and covers aviation and tourism.
