Diverted Tonga passengers spend two nights in Christchurch chapel during floods

Volunteers from the Christchurch Tongan community hub supplied shelter to stranded passengers, diverted from Auckland. Photo / File, Nick Thompson; Flickr

Passengers on an Air New Zealand service from Tonga spent two nights in a Christchurch Methodist church after their Auckland flight was diverted this weekend.

NZ971 was one of nine planes diverted to Christchurch Airport following the closure of Auckland due to flooding.

On Friday, Paea Fifita who runs the Christchurch Tongan Community Hub had no idea how bad the flooding was in Auckland.

“I had a phone call from my cousin in Auckland, whose two boys should have been arriving on a flight for 6.30pm,” he said. The plane had been diverted 800km south and across the Cook Strait, while the runway in south Auckland was closed by flood waters.

Arriving at Christchurch airport at after 8pm, Fifita said he got a sense of the scale of the disruption when he tried to collect them from the arrivals hall.

“I hadn’t realised 5 more [diverted] flights had just arrived. They didn’t come through arrivals until 4.30am in the morning.”

The passengers on NZ971 were among 1500 passengers stranded in the airport on Friday night, as planes diverted from Auckland.

“The airport and Air New Zealand staff were giving out blankets and helping, but I said to myself ‘this is not looking good’. There were people with children and elderly.”

Flight NZ971 was one of nine planes, diverted 800km south to Christchurch during floods. Photo / Flight Radar 24

Over twenty camp beds were put up in the Methodist Church for stranded arrivals on the flight from Fuaʻamotu International, with food and blankets donated from Pacific Health.

On Saturday morning the Christchurch Tongan Community hub put out a request for anyone wishing to donate food or help, to drop by the church or the international arrivals hall.

The passengers diverted onto Christchurch had no idea of the situation in Auckland until well after they had boarded their flights and were well on their way. It was a surprise to be diverted so far south, said Fifita.

“The funny thing is a lot of them had never been to the South Island,” he said.

The majority of passengers on 971 were able to travel on to Auckland on Sunday night, arriving shortly after midnight following further delays. The last passengers are booked to depart Christchurch later this evening.

As the country’s second largest runway, Christchurch saw nine flights diverted on Friday night, eight passenger planes and one cargo plane.

“Around 1,500 airline passengers spent Friday night in the terminal and 100 did so last night. The situation has now returned to normal,” said an airport spokesperson.

They thanked diverted travellers for their understanding and those offering beds and support to stranded passengers.

“Our operations centre had lots of calls from Christchurch people offering beds to people who can’t find accommodation.”

The situation has now returned to normal, they said.