Have you see AI repeat itself inside a paragraph? This looks more like something an editor missed.

Fourth paragraph, sixth sentence: "Still, at best, only two-thirds of the occupants were buckled up after seventy seconds."

Fourth paragraph, final sentence: "Fully a third of the occupants were still out of their seats after seventy seconds."

Not a repeat; an error. How many people were in their seats, unbuckled?

Yeah if you had AI rewrite things a few times and copy and paste paragraphs from multiple drafts together this is definitely something that could happen.