The damaged Air NZ Boeing 777 landed in Auckland at 8.18pm on Sunday. Image / Flightradar24
A damaged Air New Zealand jet has returned to Auckland after a low-level, unpressurised flight - and without passengers - after it hit an airbridge in Australia.
An Air New Zealand Boeing 777 with a punctured fuselage has landed safely in Auckland tonight after an unpressurised flight at low altitude.
As the Herald revealed earlier on Sunday, the damaged aircraft has a small hole just below the captain’s window after it struck an airbridge last Thursday.
After three days on the ground, the aircraft took off from Brisbane Airport about 2.50pm local time (4.50pm NZT) on Sunday.
The plane, with the special flight number NZ6000, landed safely in Auckland at 8.18pm.
The transtasman flight operated at about 9000 feet, about a quarter of the normal altitude, and was not carrying passengers or cargo.
It travelled at about 390 knots (720km/h).
The airline said such flights were not unusual in these scenarios.
The twin-engine passenger jet, registration ZK-OKN, was damaged when it struck the airbridge as it was being pushed back from its gate at Brisbane Airport on Thursday, before a flight to Auckland.
Passengers on Flight NZ146 were taken off the plane and rebooked on to other flights on Thursday and Friday.
Air New Zealand told the Herald that a “very small section” of the aircraft’s skin had “puncture damage”.
It is about 7cm wide, just below the captain’s window. There was no other damage.
A passenger told the Herald she had been unaware that the plane had hit the airbridge at the time.
However, the impact was bad enough that the plane had been grounded in Brisbane since Thursday afternoon while engineers checked the extent of the damage and considered options for repair.
According to one source, those options included flying the jet unpressurised, at low level, to a Singapore maintenance facility.
The airline instead landed on a shorter route, under the same conditions, to Auckland.
Earlier, Air New Zealand said today’s flight would operate at about 10,000ft, although that would be subject to flying conditions. Transtasman flights normally operate at between 33,000 and 39,000ft.
“Our engineering team has consulted with Boeing on the appropriate repair approach,” Air New Zealand chief safety and risk officer Nathan McGraw earlier told the Herald.
“The aircraft remains in Brisbane and is planned to return to Auckland [today] for the repairs to be carried out by our engineering and maintenance team.
“The aircraft will operate unpressurised, with no passengers or cargo onboard, at a lower cruise altitude, which is not unusual in these scenarios.”
An Air New Zealand spokeswoman said the collision was under investigation. “Liability is yet to be determined.”
The passenger on the flight said she later saw, in the terminal, a worker who had been on the airbridge. “I didn’t expect to be hit by a triple-seven,” the worker told her.
Air New Zealand said its international schedules would not be affected by the grounding of the jet, one of eight Boeing 777s in its fleet, according to its website.
“As part of our routine maintenance schedule, the aircraft was already set to travel to Singapore this week,” said McGraw.
“Once repairs are completed in Auckland, the aircraft will continue to Singapore next Wednesday as originally planned for scheduled maintenance.
“Because this ground time was planned, the additional repairs will not affect the overall schedule or impact any customer travel plans.”
Some passengers who were transferred to other flights on Thursday were upset when their replacement flight was delayed and in-flight meals that they had paid for were not provided.
Air NZ chief operating officer Alex Marren said passengers on the cancelled flight “were rebooked on the best available options, with all travelling within 24 hours of the original departure time”.
“Some customers were transferred to NZ148, which was delayed to accommodate them. As this flight is catered out of Auckland and we were not expecting these additional customers, some may not have received a meal service.
“We regret that this experience did not meet their expectations and sincerely apologise for the disruption.”
Air New Zealand earlier apologised to passengers for the original cancellation.
“Unfortunately, despite our best efforts, the necessary checks and any resulting repairs cannot be completed in time for your flight today,” the airline said in an email to passengers.
“While we know this will be disappointing, your safety and wellbeing are always our highest priority.”
The aircraft in question, ZK-OKN, has been flown by Air New Zealand since February 2011.
By coincidence, ZK-OKN was involved in another airport incident – in January 2023, at Auckland.
Authorities launched an investigation after the plane, which was operating as Flight NZ125, landed from Melbourne amid heavy rain and strong wind gusts.
Transport Accident Investigation Commission chief investigator of accidents Naveen Kozhuppakalam said at the time that the aircraft briefly lost directional control shortly after touchdown and veered from the runway centreline.
“The pilot regained control, completed the landing, and taxied the aircraft to the airport terminal.”
Six runway edge lights and the aircraft’s undercarriage assembly were damaged, and one tyre was also deflated.
The aircraft and its flight crew were also at the centre of an Australian Transport Safety Bureau investigation and report after the plane flew below its cleared altitude on approach to Brisbane in November 2017.
The bureau report found that “as a result of high workload, a loss of awareness of the aircraft’s descent profile, and a preconception with ensuring that the aircraft did not get high on the approach flight path, the flight crew initiated a descent below the cleared altitude of 3000ft as the aircraft was positioning for final approach.
“The flight crew corrected the error and levelled the aircraft at about 2000ft shortly before being alerted of the altitude breach by ATC.”
According to its website, Air New Zealand has a fleet of 56 jets, including eight Boeing 777s, alongside Boeing Dreamliners and Airbus A320s and A321s.
The 777s have an average age of 11.9 years.
Air New Zealand operates a further 52 turbo-prop aircraft – de Havilland Q300s and ATR 72s – on domestic regional routes.
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