Panic on Air NZ flight as plane circles Tauranga for hours

A passenger on board a flight that circled above Tauranga for almost two hours said passengers were starting to panic as they were given little information about the situation. The Air New Zealand flight from Wellington had reported a fault with the landing gear and requested emergency services be on standby. It did eventually land without incident about a quarter to nine last night. One of the passengers, John Hurihanganui, told our reporter Sarah Robson he first got an inkling that something was wrong when the pilot aborted their first attempt at landing.