Disruptive passenger forces Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland to divert to Melbourne
The flight continued to Auckland after 90-minute delay, Air New Zealand says
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.An Air New Zealand flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand, from Perth, Australia, was forced to divert on Wednesday morning after a passenger became disruptive, the airline said.
The flight landed instead in the Australian city of Melbourne, where police officers awaited the aircraft. The flight continued to Auckland after a 90-minute delay, Air New Zealand said in a statement.
The carrier did not give more details about the episode.
“Our crew managed the incident well, but incidents like this are distressing for our customers and our people and we have zero tolerance for this sort of behavior on our aircraft,” said an airline spokesperson, David Morgan.
The diversion came less than a week after another Air New Zealand flight was held on the tarmac for two hours when it arrived in its destination, Sydney, following what the airline called a security incident. Local news outlets reported there had been a bomb threat.
There was “no threat to the community", Australian Federal Police said Saturday.