goliath

I was on NZ532 today, departing from CHC to AKL. During take-off we heard and felt a little bump, it just felt like some bump in the runway. Right after taking off, the pilot flew a hard curve, kind of like going into a holding pattern. After about 2 minutes of flight, we were informed by the flight deck that the plane had hit a "considerable bird" and was to return to CHC immediately. The pilot was then doing a low fly-by near CHC tower for NZ technicians to inspect the plane for visual body damage while flying by. After no damage was found, they did another circle and we landed again.

Besides a mess that was immediately cleaned off the left wing, inspection revealed some further damage to the flaps on that wing and the aircraft was considered unfit to fly.

We were deboarded and off soon thereafter on another plane to AKL and landed only 65 minutes behind schedule.

Kudos to all crew involved, everything was handled in a very professional way, passengers were informed all the time about what was happening. Replacement plane was in place in no time and in AKL, all connecting flights were held back (including NZ8 to SFO to which 31 passengers of our flight were connecting to). ^

Blackcloud

Second strike within a week.
I hope this is not a sign of deteriorating NZ-Avian relations

Kiwi Flyer

LOL. They were both flights to AKL. Perhaps the birds are trying to tell us something?

Rebound

They are flying to be part of the SuperCity Kiwi Flyer

kiwigirl2

Glad to hear you landed safely goliath, and once again AirNZ were on to it. Two thumbs up from me.^^