Anti-Ice Issue Prompts Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner To Return To Auckland After 2 Hours Inflight

Summary

Air New Zealand flight NZ81 returned to Auckland due to an anti-ice function issue in one engine.
The Boeing 787-9 aircraft was cruising at 34,000 feet when the issue was detected.
Passengers were accommodated on the next available service, and no safety concerns were reported.

Passengers onboard a recent Air New Zealand flight between its home in Auckland and Hong Kong had their flight turned around two and half hours into service due to the anti-ice function inside one of its engines requiring inspection. The flight NZ81, operated by a Boeing 787-9, was over the Coral Sea, northeast of Brisbane when the call was made to return home. The reason for returning the aircraft home instead of a foreign port is standard for carriers, given that they will have their dedicated maintenance team on hand with spare parts as required.

On Thursday, July 4, NZ81 was scheduled to depart Auckland International Airport (AKL) at 10:45 for the usual ten-and-a-half-hour flight to Hong Kong International Airport (HKG). The flight eventually departed Auckland at 11:51, with an expected arrival time to HKG at 18:20.

Cruising at 34,000 feet

After departing the City of Sails (Auckland) over an hour later than expected, according to Flightradar24, the flight took off in a westerly direction before quickly climbing to its cruising altitude of 34,000 feet. The flight traveled up the Northland Coast and between Norfolk and Lord Howe Island (both dependencies of Australia) before the captain noted discrepancies in one of the anti-ice functions inside one of its Trent 1000 engines and decided to return home. The aircraft had just passed New Caledonia and was over the Coral Sea.

An Air New Zealand Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner on the apron at Auckland Airport.

Photo: Jordan Tan I Shutterstock

The aircraft touched back in Auckland six hours after initial take-off, landing at around 17:50 local time. An Air New Zealand spokesperson released this statement and thanked passengers for their understanding:

“Customers will be accommodated on the next available service and we’d like to thank them for their patience and understanding.”

This incident marks the second flight in a week for the Star Alliance carrier to have had to return home mid-flight. Just this past Tuesday, an Air New Zealand flight destined for Shanghai, China, was required to re-route back to Auckland after it was suspected to be ‘using more oil than usual.’ Passengers onboard NZ289 eventually had a nine-hour flight to nowhere for the aircraft to return home for an inspection by the Air New Zealand maintenance team. Passengers were also re-accommodated onto an alternative service, and neither flight was deemed to have put passengers’ or crew’s safety in danger.

Widebody fleet and aircraft details

Air New Zealand’s fleet of 14 Boeing 787-9 has an average age of around 7.5 years. The carrier still has two more on order and will introduce the 787-10 variant as a replacement for its aging 777-300ER aircraft (of which it has seven and two on lease from Cathay Pacific).

This week, the aircraft at the center of the drama was the 787-9, registered ZK-NZI and bearing serial number 37965. According to ch-Aviation, it was delivered to the airline on July 27, 2016. During its manufacturing, it held US registration N4580D and took its first test flight on July 1, 2016. It is configured with 18 business, 21 premium, and 263 economy class seats and is powered by two Rolls-Royce Trent 1000 engines.