(CNN) – A LATAM Airlines plane was damaged while traveling from Santiago, Chile, to Asunción, Paraguay, and had to make an emergency landing at Silvio Pettirossi International Airport on Wednesday after experiencing “severe weather conditions over the air” route,” the airline told CNN in a statement on Thursday.
“Passengers and crew are all safe and well,” the statement said, with the airline regretting “any inconvenience this weather situation may have caused passengers.”
Telefuturo, an affiliate of CNN, reported that 48 people were on the flight.
Images obtained by the terminal showed the plane damaged, missing its nose and shattered windshield.
Chile’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation said in a statement on Thursday that Paraguayan aviation authorities had begun an investigation and that a team of experts from the Chilean agency “will be integrated on the ground to cooperate with this investigation.”
CNN en Español contacted the National Civil Aviation Authority of Paraguay on Thursday for more information but has yet to receive a response.
Scary flight for passengers
“Near Asunción, terrible waves started and people started panicking and then the pilot told us to prepare for an emergency landing,” passenger Pabla Thomen told private radio station, Monumental AM 1080, today. Thursday.
Thomen added that she was scared and hugged her daughter during the storm and at one point her seat belt was not unfastened. She was able to fasten her seat belt with the help of another passenger.
The woman also said in the phone interview that there was a time when she ” said goodbye to her daughter, told her that she loved her, adored her and that they would always be together.”
Top image: This LATAM plane landed with a broken nose in Paraguay. (From Telefuturo)
