How mad would you be if you were on this flight?
Man, I'd be just livid.
16 hours in the air for nothing.
The flight was halfway to New York — eight hours in the air already — when the captain made the announcement:
Passengers on a flight from New Zealand to New York spent 16 hours in the air just to end up at the same airport where their journey began.
The Air New Zealand nonstop flight from Auckland to New York had been in the air for about 8 hours Thursday and was about 2,000 miles from California when the airline received word that an electrical fire at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport had led to Terminal 1 being closed.
The airline said the decision was made for the plane to turn around and return to Auckland, where it landed about 16 hours after departing.
They really decided this was the best option: To turn around and go back to New Zealand after eight hours in the air. That boggles my mind.
Like, I'd have been happy to just be dropped off in Los Angeles in this situation. I can find my way to New York from there.
But 16 hours in the air wasted?
No way!
Not to mention the vulnerability of flying over the Pacific Ocean the entire flight.
That alone would scare me.
And, you know, that whole sitting on an airplane thing isn't really fun in the first place.
Here's the airline's explanation:
"Diverting to another U.S. port would have meant the aircraft would remain on the ground for several days, impacting a number of other scheduled services and customers," an airline spokeswoman told the New Zealand Herald.
Terminal 1 remained closed Friday while crews repaired the issues caused by the electrical fire.
Welcome back to Auckland International Airport, the current time is 16 hours later than when we took off from this exact spot. We thank you for flying absolutely nowhere with us today and we hope to see you soon the next time you feel like spending two-thirds of a day above the Pacific Ocean for absolutely no reason at all. Thank you and have a great day!
Customers were simply told by the airline to get on the next available flight to New York.
No thanks!
