Air New Zealand flight turns around midair, makes emergency landing in Nelson

Two fire trucks were on standby as an Air New Zealand plane came in for an emergency landing at Nelson Airport this morning.

Air New Zealand’s chief operational integrity and safety officer Captain David Morgan said the crew onboard experienced an air conditioning fault and diverted.

The flight left Christchurch at 6.02am bound for Auckland.

Instead, it diverted to Nelson where it made an emergency landing an hour later.

A Fire and Emergency New Zealand spokeswoman told the Herald its services were not needed.

Crews from Stoke and Nelson were dispatched at 6.53am.

The flight landed without incident.

Flight tracker map shows Air New Zealand flight NZ5966 from Christchurch to Auckland circling over Tasman Bay three times before turning back to land at Nelson Airport. Photo / Flightradar24

Engineers will assess the aircraft, a De Havilland Canada Dash 8-300, Morgan said.

There were no passengers on the flight. There were only two pilots onboard as it was a “repositioning flight”, he said.