A New Zealand flight turns around after discovering that it was unauthorized to land in China

SYDNEY (Reuters) – An Air New Zealand flight to Shanghai turned around on Sunday after finding out it did not have permission to land in China, the airline said.

The flight NZ289 carrying about 270 pbadengers left Auckland shortly before midnight Saturday to return around 10 am Sunday (21:00 GMT Saturday). 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 send them to Shanghai at 11pm. Sunday (10:00 GMT).

"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.

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 a spokesman for the airline said it was due to a technical problem, but not to a problem.