The plane landed safely, Air New Zealand said. Photo: RNZ / Dan Cook
An engineering issue on a Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Nelson has forced the plane to return to Auckland.
Fire and Emergency said they were called to the airport shortly after 3pm on Thursday, after being told there'd been an "engine shutdown" on the flight.
Nine fire trucks and more than 30 firefighters were on standby at the airport.
St John ambulance also sent more than a dozen ambulances and its major incident support team.
Air New Zealand said the flight landed safely, and its maintenance team will now inspect the aircraft.
It said the plane had an "engineering issue".
"We regret the inconvenience this has caused our customers travelling to Nelson this afternoon and we are working to get them to their destination as quickly as possible," said its chief safety and risk officer Nathan McGraw.
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