Air New Zealand flight forced to divert to Guam due to ‘electrical smell’ on plane

NZ78 was forced to divert to Guam, west of the Philippines. Image / Flight Radar

An Air New Zealand flight from Auckland from Taipei to Auckland was forced to divert to the Pacific island of Guam today because of an “unidentified odour” in the cabin.

A passenger on flight NZ78 said they were forced to wait on the plane for five hours upon arrival due to an “electrical kind of smell.”

“We had no details on what was going on.”

Passengers would have to wait until the following morning to fly out.

Air New Zealand chief operational integrity and safety officer, Captain David Morgan, said the flight diverted to Guam due to the odour because the problem couldn’t be resolved in-flight.

“The flight arrived safely in Guam at 2.30am this morning [local time].

“Our team are working closely with customers on board to ensure they are taken care of and are working on options to get them to their destination as quickly as possible.”

Morgan said Air New Zealand apologised to customers impacted by the diversion and thanked them for their patience.

Guam is a territory controlled by the United States in the Northern Mariana Islands, about 6000km from New Zealand.