Hawkes Bay Today
  • Hawke's Bay Today home
  • Latest news
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
  • Video
  • Death notices
  • Classifieds

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • On The Up
  • Sport
  • Business
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Residential property listings
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology

Locations

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Havelock North
  • Central Hawke's Bay
  • Tararua

Media

  • Video
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-Editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

Weather

  • Napier
  • Hastings
  • Dannevirke
  • Gisborne

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / Hawkes Bay Today

Stuck in the frost: Faulty door leaves Hawke's Bay Airport passengers out in the cold

By Georgia May
Hawkes Bay Today·
3 Jul, 2019 06:00 PM2 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Michael Crooks was one of 30 passengers locked out of Hawke's Bay Airport. Photo / Paul Taylor

Michael Crooks was one of 30 passengers locked out of Hawke's Bay Airport. Photo / Paul Taylor

A frost that froze Hawke's Bay Airport's terminal entry doors to the point where they refused to open for early morning passengers has been described as a "one off" event.

Michael Crooks was travelling to Auckland from Napier on a 6.15am flight on June 20, to then catch a connecting flight to Australia.

Upon arrival at the airport at 5am, Crooks found 30 other passengers standing out in the frost as the airport's doors refused to open.

"We had to be at the check-in counter at the airport by 5.15am in order to check our luggage through on the 6.15am flight to Auckland.

"We had managed to roll out of bed by 4am and to arrive at the front doors of the airport by 5am, only to find, along with all other passengers, we were not allowed to enter as the front doors were locked. We were shut out," he said.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Is this normal or do we have a Fawlty Towers airport?"

The doors finally slid open at 5.20am, five minutes after check-in, and passengers were greeted by the warmth of the foyer and airport staff were able to check in their bags without incident.

Hawke's Bay Airport CEO Stuart Ainslie said the unfortunate incident was a "one off" and was surprised no one had notified the airport staff at the time.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"Because it was frosty the door didn't open right, but when the staff realised they were on it within minutes, so I believe it's just a one-off glitch," he said.

With more than 30 volunteers on deck at the airport to assist passengers, Ainslie said it was surprising that no one had reported it.

"We're doing a regular customer survey and we're really keen to find out what people think about improvements.

"The doors are auto-slide doors, but in this case they got stuck.

Discover more

New Zealand|crime

Lowlife steals elderly man's independence

02 Jul 06:00 PM

Group named to build Manawatū-Tararua Highway

03 Jul 06:33 PM

Polar plunge pays off for pool

03 Jul 06:00 PM
New Zealand

Soaking wet: Deluge to start the day, more to come

03 Jul 08:15 PM

"In the scheme of things, these sort of things do happen at airports every day, it's just unfortunate that this particular incident happened on a cold, frosty morning."

Despite the frosty reception, Crooks made it to Auckland on time and spent a week thawing out in Port Douglas.

Save

    Share this article

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Hawkes Bay TodayUpdated

Stabbing in Hawke’s Bay, one taken to hospital with serious wounds

19 Jun 10:45 PM
Hawkes Bay Today

Air NZ plane lands safely after mid-air maintenance alert

19 Jun 09:14 PM
Hawkes Bay Today

'Living expressions': Pou returned to Hastings Civic Square after restoration

19 Jun 09:00 PM

Jono and Ben brew up a tea-fuelled adventure in Sri Lanka

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from Hawkes Bay Today

Stabbing in Hawke’s Bay, one taken to hospital with serious wounds

Stabbing in Hawke’s Bay, one taken to hospital with serious wounds

19 Jun 10:45 PM

One person was taken into custody at the scene.

Air NZ plane lands safely after mid-air maintenance alert

Air NZ plane lands safely after mid-air maintenance alert

19 Jun 09:14 PM
'Living expressions': Pou returned to Hastings Civic Square after restoration

'Living expressions': Pou returned to Hastings Civic Square after restoration

19 Jun 09:00 PM
Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

Our top Premium stories this year: Special offer for Herald, Viva, Listener

19 Jun 08:11 PM
Help for those helping hardest-hit
sponsored

Help for those helping hardest-hit

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • Hawke's Bay Today e-edition
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Subscribe to the Hawke's Bay Today
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • NZME Events
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP