An Air New Zealand plane heading to Auckland from Tauranga this evening had to turn back after a firefighter spotted an apparent mechanical fault.
James Smith said he was waiting at Tauranga Airport to catch the next flight to Auckland when an earlier Air New Zealand plane taxiing down the runway turned around and came back.
Mr Smith said he had been told that a firefighter on the ground noticed something wrong with the rear of the plane and alerted the captain.
The Air New Zealand 8206 flight was due to depart Tauranga at 6.20pm, and its passengers got off the plane while further checks were undertaken, he said.
Eventually a "dry-run" test of the aircraft taxiing down the runway without passengers was carried out before the all clear was given to depart again.
Mr Smith said a couple of the passengers, many whom were business people, told him they did not realise there was a problem until the plane turned back.
"People were a little bit nervous but one woman told me it was better to be safe than sorry," he said.
The passengers finally re-boarded just before 7.30pm and the plane departed at 7.38pm.
An Air New Zealand representative at Tauranga Airport declined to comment, and no one from the company's head office was available for comment.