An Air New Zealand flight from Brisbane to Wellington dramatically aborted its landing on Thursday due to weather conditions.
Flight NZ272 was placed in a holding pattern before attempting to land in Wellington. The plane touched down briefly but immediately took off again due to wind shear, a sudden change in wind speed or direction.
The flight was diverted to Auckland, where it landed safely. Footage of the event showed smoke in the tail area as the plane pulled up after touching the runway, but Air New Zealand stated that no contact with the tail occurred.
Air New Zealand’s head of flight operations, Captain Hugh Pearce told legacy media that the pilots followed standard procedures when wind shear was detected before touchdown. “When the wind shear occurred, the standard procedure of initiating a go-around was executed with the main wheels touching the runway in the process,” Pearce said.
Due to the weather in Wellington, the pilots decided to divert to Auckland, and an inspection of the aircraft confirmed no damage to the tail. The airline has sent aircraft data to Airbus for further analysis to ensure the plane is fit for service.
Pearce reassured that while this was a rare situation, the crew was well-trained to handle such events, and all passengers were safely re-accommodated.
Air New Zealand plane strikes its tail on the runway in aborted landing at Wellington Airport pic.twitter.com/4FLuPoPW4z
— Paul Harvey Predicts 🇳🇿NZ (@HicksKiwi) September 28, 2024
Did the tail hit the runway?
It has to be missing some paint at the very least.
Aircraft looked steady to me 🤔 of course I wasn’t flying it.
I’ve experienced the landings where everyone applauds because we made it lol.
Better safe than sorry, good call Captain 👏👏👏