Muttonbirds on a plane? Only in New Zealand . . .

A SPILL from an Air New Zealand passenger’s hand luggage — potentially from a culled muttonbird — was so bad the airline had to find another plane to take the next scheduled flight.

Passengers were apparently told by the pilot of the domestic flight from Dunedin to Auckland on Friday afternoon that ‘‘blood’’ seen dripping from the overhead locker was from a muttonbird.

Another passenger tweeted about the delay the extra cleaning caused to her flight, which was scheduled to depart Auckland at 6pm on the same plane.

In the thread, tweeter Marian said a pilot explained someone had brought a muttonbird, presumably dead, on to the flight.

An Air New Zealand spokeswoman confirmed a flight from Auckland to Wellington scheduled to depart at 6pm was delayed by about 35 minutes while an alternative aircraft was found.

‘‘The aircraft originally scheduled to operate the service required additional cleaning following a spill from a customer’s hand luggage.’’

She did not confirm the story the spill was caused by the dead bird.

A Southerner familiar with the muttonbird harvest said noone would transport muttonbirds with blood in them, and that the liquid was most likely brine or pickle.

‘‘The birds are salted, which draws the blood out. The blood dissolves in the pickle.

‘‘It may appear to be blood, but it’s not.

‘‘And if they’re in a bucket, which they were said to be, it would be 20 birds and not one. They’re very small.’’

Muttonbirds, or titi, are the plentiful sooty shearwaters that nest in New Zealand and islands in the South Atlantic Ocean. Rakiura Maori have rights to gather muttonbirds on 36 islands, known as the Titi Islands, around Stewart Island. — NZME