Round The World and other travels

Flight Log 11 : NZ411

Wellington (WLG) - Dunedin (DUD)

I discovered at the airport that NZ411 actually starts in Auckland, so I was on the lookout for its arrival. As it turned off the runway at 0905, I thought the advertised boarding time of 0910 was a bit optimistic, and so it proved to be. Nevertheless, they turned it round pretty quickly. I was one of the first to board and quickly settled into 1A, noting the 3+3 configuration throughout the single-class cabin. Luckily, or perhaps by design, 1B had been left free.

This relatively short hop was to prove an eventful flight!

Despite the slightly late arrival, we pushed back only five minutes down and were airborne by 0943. The first surprise was that it was announced that Dunedin airport was closed due to fog, but that it was expected to be open again by the time we got there. The captain said he had about an hour's worth of extra fuel, in case we needed to hold. The lead FA, who was quite a character, said that he'd be running a little competition later in the flight.

Although this was a 737, the in-flight service was exactly the same as on the Saab 340 two days previously, i.e. A small carton of mineral water, a beaker of tea or coffee and one of those tooth-breaking cookies. That was it. I formed the impression that Air New Zealand was getting close to being a low-cost carrier on its domestic services. The passenger behind me asked for one of those little towelettes after his coffee and was told that they they weren't available any more, but he was welcome to visit the bathroom and wash his hands! I reflected that my own ticket had not been particularly cheap, but then to be fair, I had deliberately chosen to keep it semi-flexible in case I would need to alter it.

The lead FA then proceeded to keep us entertained with his competition, the entry forms for which turned out to be Pacific Class napkins! There were three questions : which equation expresses Einstein's theory of relativity, state Pythagoras's Theorem and ... this was the killer ... write the first line of the Maori verse of the National Anthem. Confident of my answers to the first two questions, but with no answer to the third, I handed in my "entry form" anyway, in the spirit of things. Needless to say I didn't win.

However the real fun started as we got closer to DUD. As we circled several times in the holding pattern, everyone was looking out of the windows and wondering where the fog was. It seemed to be a beautiful morning. At about 1110, the captain announced that he was going to attempt a landing, but not to be alarmed if the power came back on! As we got to 600ft, it became all too obvious what the problem was. As we started to enter the cloud blanket, I knew we could never make it. Sure enough, the gear was raised and a surge of engine power lifted us out of the mess.

As we circled at about 4000ft for another while, I began to think that a decision would have to be made soon about diverting, if we were to have enough fuel to reach an alternative airport. Some passengers speculated about Invercargill (can it handle jets, I wondered?) while others spoke of the more obvious alternative of Christchurch. Just after 1130, the captain announced that he would attempt another landing. This time we seemed to hit the cloud at a higher altitude, and it was much more broken. By about 500ft, we were actually underneath it and it was clear that we were going to be OK. We touched down at 1140, decelerated fiercely using both reverse thrust and brakes and made it to the terminal building by 1143, very nearly an hour behind schedule.

The lead FA's parting shot over the PA system was "Live long and prosper," so the businessman in 1C and I raised our hands in unison in the Vulcan salute

Well, that was one I wouldn't forget in a hurry! I can honestly say I never even came close to being panicky, and I didn't see or hear any evidence of anyone else doing so either. There was, however, a mini-stampede to the toilets immediately after the aborted landing, despite the seat belt signs! I did wonder, though, just how much of that spare fuel we had used and, more to the point, how much was left for diversion purposes if that second landing had also been aborted. I also wondered about the chosen site for an airport which, on today's admittedly limited evidence, was the only place for miles around affected by fog.

Date: Tue 16 Mar 2004
Aircraft : B737-300
Scheduled dep : 0930
Actual departure : 0935
Scheduled arrival : 1045
Actual arrival : 1143
Cabin : Economy
Seat : 1A





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