Air New Zealand flight forced to return after disturbing discovery on board – passengers stuck on flight to nowhere for nine hours

Air New Zealand passengers faced a nine-hour flight to return to their point of departure after their plane was forced to turn back.

Flight NZ289 departed Auckland, New Zealand, on Monday evening and was bound for Shanghai, China. However, just four and a half hours into the flight, the plane made a U-turn near the Solomon Islands.

Alex Marren, Air New Zealand’s chief operating officer, said 7News The aborted flight was a “proactive safety measure” implemented because one of the plane’s engines was using more fuel than normal.

“The decision was made to return to Auckland so that our engineering team could check the aircraft here to expedite the repair,” Mr Marren said.

‘The aircraft arrived in Auckland at 8:36am this morning and customers are being transported on the next available service.

“We would like to thank our customers for their patience and understanding as our teams work through the rebooking process.”

It is known that the aircraft will have a full service, but the airline does not have the facilities for this in Shanghai.

Last month, two people were injured in a Air New Zealand plane when it encountered severe turbulence on a flight from Wellington to Queenstown.

An Air New Zealand passenger plane was delayed four and a half hours to its scheduled flight to Shanghai (photo shows a generic image)

Due to unusually high fuel consumption from one engine, the plane had to make a U-turn over the Pacific Ocean

A passenger reportedly suffered burns from a pot of hot coffee, while a crew member was thrown from her feet about 15 minutes after takeoff on June 16.