The incident took place at night when LATAM flight 1325 was flying between Santiago de Chile and Asunción.
A LATAM Airlines Airbus A320 serving flight 1325 between Santiago de Chile Airport (SCL) and Asunción International Airport (ASU) suffered from severe climate, forcing the crew to divert to Foz do Iguaçu/Cataratas International Airport (IGU) in Brazil and then damaging the nose, engines, and windshield.
LATAM flight
The incident took place on October 26. LATAM Airline Group Paraguay’s flight 1325, with 48 passengers onboard, left Santiago de Chile at approximately 17:25 en route to Asunción, the capital city of Paraguay. Nonetheless, due to a storm at Asunción, the crew had to divert the commercial service to Foz de Iguaçu.
After staying in Foz de Iguaçu for about 3 hours, the flight departed again towards Paraguay. During these 3 hours, the passengers were unable to get off the plane. The crew told the passengers that the Brazilian authorities were not letting them disembark until a customs team came to the flight.
Nonetheless, when approaching Asunción, LATAM’s flight 1325 encountered a severe climate, which forced the crew to do an emergency landing.
Once on the ground, the damage the aircraft suffered due to the weather could be seen. As reported on social media, the flight, an Airbus A320 registration CC-BAZ, suffered damage on its radome (located on the nose of the aircraft), an engine, and the windshield.
Reports on social media state that the flight lost both engines while approaching Asunción, which led to the deployment of the Ram Air Turbine (RAT). LATAM Airline Group for clarification on these reports; the airline rejected to comment on anything else beyond the report we share below.
LATAM Airlines released a report
“LATAM Airlines Paraguay said that on Wednesday, October 26, flight LA1325 (Santiago de Chile-Asunción) went through severe meteorological conditions during the flight. The aircraft did an emergency landing in Asunción, a procedure that was executed without trouble at 23:09 (local time). Both passengers and the crew are in good condition. LATAM Airlines Paraguay regrets the inconvenience this meteorological event may have caused its travelers.”
Due to the incident, Paraguay’s national civil aviation authority (DINAC) will launch an investigation, and Chile’s counterpart will participate in it, as revealed by Chile’s civil aviation authority on Thursday. Here below is an embedded video of the turbulence the flight encountered last night.
The flight involved in this incident was a LATAM Airlines Airbus A320-200. Its registration number is CC-BAZ, which is based in Chile, although it operated a flight for LATAM Paraguay. The aircraft can carry 180 passengers in a one-class environment.
LATAM Airlines has a fleet composed of 288 aircraft as of October 2022, according to data by ch-aviation. The airline has 41 Airbus A319s, 128 Airbus A320-200s, 14 A320neos, and 49 Airbus A321ceos for short- and medium-haul flights.
For long-haul services, LATAM Airline has 18 Boeing 767-300(ER), ten Boeing 777-300(ER), ten Boeing 787 Dreamliner 8, and 18 Boeing 787 Dreamliner 9
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