A flight from Auckland to Tauranga was forced to abort its landing and turn back last night after a string of floating lanterns drifted into the airport’s airspace.
An Air NZ spokesperson said flight NZ5145 from Auckland to Tauranga returned to Auckland due to sky lanterns near the runway.
Data from FlightRadar24.com showed the plane circling above Matakana Island for about 20 minutes before returning to Auckland.
Police said they were called by air traffic control around 9pm after reports floating lanterns had been released from an unknown location and were drifting into Tauranga Airport’s flight path.
"Police responded to the area where the lanterns were thought to be coming from, however no one was seen and no further lanterns had been released."
The Civil Aviation Authority said it had made initial inquiries and could confirm the incident.
"In the interests of safety, we remind the public to avoid releasing any airborne objects in the vicinity of airports, or where they could affect aircraft operations," a CAA spokesperson said.
Passenger Rebecca Sharp told 1News the plane was pretty close to landing when it banked off suddenly.
"The pilot said there'd been an unexpected situation of Chinese lanterns across the airspace and that we'd gone into a holding pattern," she said.
"Then they said they couldn't clear it, so we're going to have to return to Auckland."
Sharp said her daughter waiting for her at the airport saw the lanterns and described them as like a "huge cluster of stars" over the airport.
"We could see a few little ones out of the plane window," she said.
Once Sharp arrived back in Auckland, she hired a car and drove down to Tauranga.
"The other options were for a direct flight into Tauranga that wasn't until 6pm tonight, or a bus at 10am, so there will probably still be people on their way down."
She said many passengers were left scrambling to make alternative arrangements, with some likely still travelling to Tauranga the following day.
"It would have been quite good if they had actually just outlined the policy a bit, because there were a lot of distressed people."
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