“All the Gauges Went Blank” - LATAM Airlines Technical Event Injures 50

[toucana]

A Chilean LATAM  Airlines LA800 flight from Sydney to Auckland NZ suffered a ‘Technical Event’ on Monday that sent the 787 Dreamliner jet plunging 500 feet in an instant, injuring some 50 passengers, 12 of whom needed hospital treatment on arrival in Auckland.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/latam-flight-from-sydney-to-auckland-nose-dives-passengers-and-crew-thrown-into-ceiling/MBE4BNFIFJD73DDZJ3USYZYL5M/

Passengers subsequently told reporters that the pilot had apologised to them after the incident, and said that he had lost control of the plane after “All the gauges went blank”. The nature of this technical event appears to be related to an AD (Airworthiness Directive) originally issued by the FAA in 2015.

https://www.aviationtoday.com/2015/05/05/boeing-787-power-issue-to-receive-software-fix/

The issue identified is a glitch with the GCU processors which control the AC generators used to power the aircraft’s electrical systems. The problem can arise if the aircraft’s avionics systems are left continuously powered up for 248 days or longer. An internal system counter in the controller chip overflows and forces a fail-safe system reset. This previously unknown issue was apparently only detected during extended laboratory bench-testing over an 8 month period.

This was a potentially catastrophic failure in a fly-by-wire passenger jet. It was mitigated only by the fact that the the airliner was flying at a cruise altitude of 35,000 feet. During the emergency the plane was briefly descending at 4000 feet/minute (according to FR24) before the the event was fully brought under control. If this had happened at a lower altitude during the final landing approach, it could easily have led to the total loss of the airplane along with all the passengers and crew.