On April 8, an Air New Zealand Boeing 787 bound for Papeete made a u-turn back to Auckland amid a problem onboard.
Information has been released pertinent to this incident, so here is what we know so far.
Without further ado, let’s get into it…
NZ902 – Auckland to Papeete…
Air New Zealand flight NZ902 is a routine scheduled flight between Auckland and Papeete.
The aircraft involved in the u-turn back to AKL was operated by ZK-NZI.
As per data from Planespotters.net, ZK-NZI is a 7.8 year old Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner that was delivered to the airline in July 2016.
Of the 787-9 variant, Air New Zealand has 14 in the fleet, of which all but two are in active service.
Furthermore, average fleet age for the variant at the airline stands at 7.9 years.
Air New Zealand flight NZ902 departed Auckland at 1941 local time and proceeded north-easterly towards Papeete.
Around 25 minutes after departure, the aircraft made a singular hold initially followed by another just north of that position.
Furthermore, from there, the decision was made for the aircraft to return back to Auckland and not continue to Papeete.
Air New Zealand flight NZ902 landed safely back into Auckland at 2118 local time without further incident.
The flight to Papeete was cancelled as a result.
As per The Aviation Herald, the aircraft was suffering hydraulic problems.
On top of this, the maintenance facilities in Papeete were limited, which meant that Auckland was the best diversion for this.
Back in Service The Next Day…
Data from RadarBox shows that ZK-NZI remained grounded for the rest of the evening in Auckland.
Fixes were made overnight to the Air New Zealand Boeing 787 before it re-entered service on April 9.
Since then, the aircraft has operated flights to Brisbane, Papeete & Hong Kong.
For the rest of this week, the aircraft is expected to operate flights to Denpasar, Brisbane and Papeete again.
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