19 Apr 2015

Passengers stuck on tarmac for 7 hours

11:32 am on 19 April 2015

Passengers on a Cathay Pacific flight were forced to spend seven hours stuck in their aircraft on the tarmac at Ohakea Airbase near Palmerston North yesterday afternoon.

The Airbus A340 with 266 passengers on board which had flown from Hong Kong was forced to divert due to a heavy burst of rain, low cloud and wind.

A Cathay Pacific spokesperson, Pauline Ray said when the plane reached Ohakea, passengers had to stay on board.

She said the crew also had to be replaced as they had reached their maximum allowed flying time.

Ms Ray said a charter Air New Zealand plane was flown to the Base with new crew and the Cathay Pacific jet landed back in Auckland just after 7.30pm.