A plane passenger has described the “unnerving” sideways movement of a plane moments, before it aborted its landing at Wellington Airport on Monday.
NZ417 successfully touched down shortly before midday, but a second flight bound for the capital was forced to land in Christchurch amid wind gusts of more than 100km/h.
Saints basketball chief executive Jordan Mills said passengers were audibly shocked as the flight from Auckland on Monday morning abandoned its first approach into Wellington Airport.
He said the flight was smooth sailing until the final 10 minutes when it got hit by turbulence.
“It was definitely unusual. There was a lot of sideways movement instead of up and down, which I was used to coming into Wellington Airport – it was a little bit unnerving.”
Mills said the plane got reasonably close, but then “the pilot decided it wasn’t safe so went back up again”.
“I just put my hat on, close my eyes and just hope we’re going to land.”
He said a second successful attempt 10 minutes later was met with huge relief from some passengers.
“We managed to land with a few more bumps and bruises along the way.
“It’s quite a funny experience – a lot of people on the plane were cheering and clapping after gasping when we couldn’t land the first time.”
People were shaking the pilot’s hand as they exited the aircraft, he said.
Mills said the crew were super relaxed throughout, and just pointed out the vomit bags for those who might be feeling sick.
He said four players from the team were due to land in Wellington this afternoon, but had been diverted to Christchurch.
Air New Zealand confirmed flight NZ433 aborted a landing into the capital due to the wind this afternoon.
An airline spokesperson said the plane was refuelling in Christchurch and was expected to make a second attempt to land in Wellington later today.
Meanwhile, Sounds Air and Origin Air said there had been no disruptions to their services due to weather in Wellington.
Sounds Air managing director Andrew Crawford said the weather had been much worse in the capital and did not understand why RNZ was getting in touch.
“It’s nothing extreme. It’s been yuck [in Wellington] but getting better.”
MetService meteorologist Oscar Shiviti said wind gusts around Wellington Airport on Monday afternoon were reaching speeds of up to 102km/h.
Meanwhile, Wellington firefighters have responded to a car that has been crushed by a fallen powerpole in the suburb of Roseneath.
Fire and Emergency central shift manager Belinda Beets said the call came in around 1.20pm for a powerpole that’s “blown over onto a car”.
By Mary Argue of rnz.co.nz
