It concerned flight NZ2 of the airline Air New Zealand, with destination John F. Kennedy Airport. Most passengers found out that the plane turned around when they viewed the flight route on their screen, the newspaper reports The New Zealand Herald.
Power failure
The reason was a power failure at the New York airport. It was caused by a fault in the electrical panel, the airport said on Twitter. A small fire would also have contributed to the malfunction. The fire was quickly extinguished.
This temporarily prevented the airport from accepting incoming flights and departing flights. “We are working to accommodate affected flights using other terminals.”
Electrical problems
The company that manages the airports and ports of New York and New Jersey said in a statement that terminal 1 at the airport would remain closed yesterday “due to electrical problems.”
Of the 64 flights that were supposed to arrive at and depart from the terminal yesterday, 39 were cancelled. The port authority was busy restoring the power as quickly as possible.
Despite the New York airport trying to redirect flights to other terminals, several flights turned around. Including flights that departed from Seoul, Rome in Milan went back to the original airport. The flight from Seoul took a total of 13 hours and 37 minutes.
A number of other flights did land at other airports in the United States.
Since this morning, planes can enter John F. Kennedy Airport again, but air traffic remains limited. “We expect the start of limited operations at Terminal 1 today,” said the port authority to Reuters news agency.
