Air New Zealand passengers had to endure a nine-hour flight back to their departure point after their plane was forced to turn back.
Flight NZ289 left Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday night and was headed to Shanghai, China, but made a U-turn near the Solomon Islands just four and a half hours into its 12-hour flight.
Air New Zealand Chief Operating Officer Alex Marren said: 7News The aborted flight was a “proactive safety measure” taken because one of the plane’s engines was using more fuel than normal.
“The decision was made to return to Auckland so our engineering team could review the aircraft here and expedite the repair,” Marren said.
‘The aircraft arrived in Auckland at 8.36am this morning (Tuesday) and customers will be accommodated on the next available service.
‘We would like to thank customers for their patience and understanding as our teams work through the rebooking process.’
It is understood that the aircraft will be fully serviced, for which the airline does not have facilities in Shanghai.
Last month two people were injured in a Air New Zealand plane when it encountered severe turbulence on a flight from Wellington to Queenstown.
An Air New Zealand passenger jet was forced to turn back four and a half hours after its scheduled flight to Shanghai (generic image in photo)
Due to unusually high fuel consumption on one engine, the plane had to make a U-turn over the Pacific.
One passenger was reportedly burned by a pot of hot coffee, while a crew member was thrown to the ground about 15 minutes after takeoff on June 16.