Back in time on New Year’s flight

A quirky take-off time let a jet full of passengers return to the year 2017 after departing in 2018.

Hawaiian Airlines Flight 446 went wheels up from Auckland, New Zealand, at 12:05 a.m. local time on New Year’s Day before landing last year in Honolulu where it was 10:15 a.m., Dec. 31.

The scheduling curiosity was pointed out online by ABC7 transportation reporter Sam Sweeney, who described it as “time travel.”

The flight originally was intended to depart Auckland at 11:55 p.m., according to flight data tracker FlightAware, before a 10-minute delay pushed its takeoff into the new year — making the jump back to yesteryear possible.

Hawaii’s time zone exists 23 hours behind that of New Zealand, enough to offset the nine-hour flight and let the flight land at 10:15 the morning before. Aviation experts say such scheduling quirks are not uncommon around the New Year’s holiday.

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AP A Hawaiian Airlines flight took off in 2018 and landed in 2017.