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An Air New Zealand flight to Shanghai made a U-turn after discovering that he was not allowed to land in China.
The flight NZ289 carrying about 270 pbadengers left Auckland shortly before midnight Saturday to return around 8 pm AEDT Sunday.
He shot several hours after the flight.
"A technical problem meant that the aircraft operating this service did not have the Chinese regulatory authority to land in China," the airline said.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry made no immediate comment when it was contacted by Reuters. Calls to the administration of civil aviation have not been answered.
Air New Zealand apologized to the pbadengers and said that a special service would take them to Shanghai on Sunday at 23:00 (local time).
"We know that customers will be deeply disappointed and frustrated by this situation and we are sorry for the disruption of their travel plans," Air New Zealand said.
NEWS: Air New Zealand # NZ289 Auckland to Shanghai (Boeing 787-9 ZK-NZQ) returned to AKL at 9:35 am today (20:35 UTC) due to the fact that the aircraft in service was not included in the base. CAAC data of persons authorized to land in the country: https://t.co/QSEZsei2hb pic.twitter.com/bndFdbuxVd
– Airport Webcams (@AirportWebcams) February 10, 2019
Aviation experts have pointed at Air New Zealand and said there would probably have been a "serious administrative turmoil".
The independent New Zealand-based aviation commentator, Irene King, told the NZ Herald it could have been caused simply by the fact that the airline chose to fly a different model.
"China is very restrictive in filing applications for landing slots. Normally, airlines are obsessed with their systems: they file landing attribute requests days, weeks, months in advance, "she said. NZ Herald.
"Obviously, there has been a tremendous administrative tension to make this happen.
"It's just very unusual. Basically, it should not have happened.
Flight instructor Warren Sattler agreed that China was strict on airspace.
"The Chinese – because of all the military airspace up there – are very, very special," he told the NZ Herald.
"It may be listed as (Boeing) 777 and they have taken a 787 instead."
Dissatisfied pbadengers expressed their disapproval on social media.
One of them posted on Twitter a photo of the onboard flight card showing the plane flying around Papua New Guinea.
"I have just experienced a new level of China Bad: halfway from our flight from Auckland to Shanghai, the pilot informs us that the Chinese authorities have not given permission to this aircraft to land. So we had to turn around. A question of license, so-called, "commented the pbadenger.
The same flight, the NZ289, was turned back on a flight to China on August 24, although an airline spokeswoman said it was due to a technical problem, but not to a problem allowing it.
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