An Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Tauranga was forced to abort its approach and turn back to Auckland on Friday night after a cluster of floating sky lanterns drifted into the aircraft’s flight path, with police later unable to find anyone who admitted releasing them.
Flight NZ5145 departed Auckland at 8.42pm on 15 May and reached the Bay of Plenty before air traffic controllers warned the pilots that lit lanterns were rising through the airspace around Tauranga Airport. Tracking data from FlightRadar24 shows the aircraft circled above Matakana Island for about 20 minutes before the captain abandoned the approach and headed back to Auckland.
One of the passengers on board, Rebecca Sharp, told the New Zealand Herald that the pilot came over the intercom to explain there was an unexpected situation that meant the plane could not land. The aircraft entered a holding pattern while the crew checked whether the lanterns would clear the area, and turned for Auckland when it became apparent the airspace was still not safe.
The decision left a planeload of passengers stranded at Auckland just before 10pm with limited options for getting to Tauranga that night. The airline put them on either a 10am bus the following morning or a replacement evening flight. Sharp said she hired a rental car and drove down the Kaimai Range rather than wait. Other passengers made arrangements on the fly or rebooked for later in the weekend.
Air traffic control contacted police around 9pm with the location they thought the lanterns had been launched from. Officers attended but found no one in the area and no further lanterns being released. A police spokesperson told RNZ that officers responded to the area where the lanterns were thought to be coming from, however no one was seen, and the investigation has not identified anyone responsible.
Tauranga City Council confirmed there were no planned festivals, fireworks events or community gatherings scheduled in the area that evening that might explain the release. That has left officials suspecting a small private gathering or someone unaware that what they were doing was sending flammable hot air balloons into a controlled airspace just a few kilometres from a working runway.
An Air New Zealand spokesperson played down the safety risk to the aircraft itself, telling reporters the pilots had been notified about the lanterns well in advance and had plenty of time to abort the approach calmly. The airline thanked passengers for their patience and apologised for the disruption.
Sky lanterns are small paper hot air balloons that rely on an open flame to lift them into the night sky. Once released, they drift with the wind until the fuel cell burns out, at which point the lantern falls back to earth. They can travel several kilometres from their launch point and remain a flying ember the whole way.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand takes a dim view of releasing them at all. The agency says on its website that it strongly recommends people do not light sky lanterns, and if they are going to use them they should tether them so they cannot drift. Lanterns released into the wind have started house fires, paddock fires and bush fires both in New Zealand and overseas, and the agency notes they pose a significant fire risk because they are at the mercy of the wind direction the moment they are lit.
The risk to aircraft is different but just as real. Civil Aviation Rules treat anything released into controlled airspace as a hazard, and pilots are required to abort a landing approach if they are not satisfied the path is clear. The Civil Aviation Authority has previously warned that lanterns can be ingested into jet engines, can confuse pilots looking for runway lights, and can force exactly the kind of go around that NZ5145 ended up performing on Friday night.
Tauranga Airport sits close to Mount Maunganui and the Papamoa coast, with the approach taking aircraft across populated suburbs as well as the harbour. A lantern released anywhere along that corridor on a still autumn evening can rise to the height of a landing aircraft within a minute or two and then sit there, glowing, for as long as the fuel lasts.
A handful of councils around the country have looked at banning sky lanterns outright under their fire safety bylaws, and Fire and Emergency itself sometimes bans them along with fireworks when fire risk climbs over summer. There is no national ban yet, however, which means anyone with a few dollars and an internet connection can buy a packet and send them up at any time of year unless a local restriction is in force.
Friday night’s incident is unlikely to be the last word on that. Tauranga councillors have spoken in the past about following the lead of other regions in pushing for tighter controls, and aviation observers say it is only a matter of time before a lantern incident causes more than a diverted flight.
For now NZ5145 made it back to Auckland safely, the passengers got to Tauranga eventually, and the police are still hoping someone in the Bay of Plenty saw something on Friday night and will pick up the phone.
Have you ever seen sky lanterns released near your home, or been on a flight that was diverted unexpectedly? Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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