Shanghai gives Air NZ permission to land
Passengers on board an Air New Zealand flight to Shanghai that was forced to return to Auckland over the weekend have finally landed in China.
Flight NZ289, which departed Auckland for Shanghai at about
11:45pm on Saturday, made a U-turn back to New Zealand
4.5 hours after take-off.
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said a technicality meant the particular aircraft operating the service, a Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner, did not have regulatory authority to land in China.
The rescheduled flight took off at 11pm on Sunday and landed at Shanghai’s Pudong Airport at about 12pm yesterday, NZ time, with a flight time of 12 hours and eight minutes, according to flight tracking site flightaware.com.
The incident made international headlines, with a Reuters story picked up by The Sydney Morning Herald, The Bangkok Post and the Hindustan Times.
Minister for Transport Phil Twyford said his staff informed him of the diversion once the issue became public.
‘‘Air New Zealand advised that they made an administrative error, and that was the reason the flight had to return to Auckland. Air New Zealand has acknowledged its mistake so it’s not necessary for me to take any action,’’ Twyford said.
Aviation commentator Irene King said the flight was most likely forced to turn back because there had been a ‘‘cock-up’’ with the paperwork at Air New Zealand’s end.
She said it was most likely the aircraft registration filed with the Chinese authorities was different to the registration of the aircraft that was used on the flight.
‘‘In that scenario there’s no way the Chinese were ever going to permit that aircraft to land.’’
Countries around the world were cautious about who was flying in their airspace, she said.
Because the incident with flight NZ289 occurred over a weekend, there was little chance of there being anyone available within China’s bureaucracy to make an amendment to allow the flight to land, she said.
‘‘That process doesn’t work 24 hours, seven days a week.’’