“The life of the passengers was put in suspense,” said Gerardo Ampuero, a Chilean diplomat who works at the Chilean embassy in Asunción. “The hardest falls it was impossible for someone to hold a phone,” he recounted.
A terrifying trip lived the passengers of a flight Latam that came out of Santiago with destination to Asuncion, in Paraguay, due to a storm they had to go through.
In fact, due to the weather conditions they faced after crossing the Andes mountain range, they were diverted to the Brazilian city of Foz de Iguazu.
Until that minute, the plane had been unharmed, but after receiving the order, they left for the Paraguayan capital, a route where the aircraft was seriously damaged.
According to the images shared by passengers, the aircraft arrived at its destination without one of its engines, with the windshield broken by hail and the radome – dome that protects the radar antenna and colloquially known as the “nose” – totally destroyed.
Passenger recounted turbulent Santiago-Asunción Latam flight
Gerardo Ampuero, diplomat who works at the Chilean embassy in Paraguay and that he was one of the passengers, recounted the terrifying trip in conversation with Expreso Bío Bío.
“There were very big drops where it would have been impossible to hold a phone to be able to record. Suddenly, the plane lost sustainability, and the drops were very long, and then, hitting a denser air mass, you also felt the shock, ”he recounted.
“The plane tried to enter about three times and could not cut through the storm, and at that moment it was decided to take the plane to Foz de Iguazú. It is offered to descend, but that means assuming the cost of doing so, that is, buying a new ticket and paying for accommodation, ”he added.
The alternative, meanwhile, was to stay on the plane and wait for the weather conditions to improve, for the flight to return.
“The pilot said that he was going to wait until 10 at night and if the conditions did not improve, he was not going to be willing to take off,” said Gerardo Ampuero.
“The aircraft took off with those of us who decided to trust the company’s criteria, thinking that the return flight was going to be different, but we found ourselves with a much worse scenario,” he said.
“The hardest falls it was impossible for someone to hold a phone. And then the problem when we entered the hailstorm, which was what apparently caused the most damage. And after going through the hailstorm, you feel that one of the engines starts to make a strange noise, it starts to fail, ”he detailed.
“I am not a technician, but apparently there was negligence here”
According to his story, the aircraft commander asked his crew to begin preparations for a forced landing.
“When you hear that, you assume that you are not going to tell it,” he added. “I thought about my son, imagining him growing up never seeing his dad again, those are the things you think about,” he said.
“I am not a technician, but apparently there was negligence here and that has to be studied, because apparently the lives of the passengers and the lives of the workers or cabin crew were put in suspense, in pursuit of complying with an itinerary, instead of having given facilities”, he questioned.
Let us remember that Latam referred to the issue in a brief statement where it did not detail the reasons for continuing the flight, despite the current weather conditions.
“The stewardesses were concerned, especially about the elderly and minors, but we did not have an official communication from the company. And deep down, what did exist was pressure to return to Asunción on the same flight, because although it is true, after three hours or so, the door was opened so that those who wanted to could get off, it was reported that this would be low. the cost itself. It was late, getting a hotel in Foz de Iguazú was not going to be easy and then getting a flight back to Asunción, we didn’t know when that could be either, ”she added.
Listen to the full interview below, conducted by Loreto Álvarez and Álvaro Escobar on the Expreso Bío Bío: