Plane circles Wellington as fog closes airport

Passengers on a flight to Wellington were this morning forced to wait patiently as their plane circled the airport, which was blanketed in fog.

An airport company spokesman said at around 7am that the fog rolled in and hour earlier and no flights had been able to take off or land since then. However, Air New Zealand's website suggested flights were now landing.

A spokesman said later that while some flights had been able to take off and land, others had not.

"There's quite a long delay and a lot of cancellations."

When there were gaps in the fog, flights could land or take off, but there was no indication when it would lift completely.

Five flights had been affected by 7.15am and although no planes had been diverted, one plane was circling in hope the fog would clear enough to land.

"One aircraft has gone around -- they tried to attempt to land. The aircraft was not able to land so they will try a second time," the spokesman said.

- NZPA, NZHERALD STAFF