An Air New Zealand flight from Perth to Auckland made an unscheduled landing in Melbourne Wednesday morning after a passenger became disruptive, marking the carrier’s second security incident in less than a week.
Police officers met the aircraft upon its arrival in Melbourne. The flight resumed its journey to Auckland following a 90-minute delay, according to an airline statement. Details about the nature of the disruption were not disclosed.
“Our crew managed the incident well, but incidents like this are distressing for our customers and our people and we have zero tolerance for this sort of behavior on our aircraft,” said David Morgan, an airline spokesperson.
The diversion follows a separate security incident last week when another Air New Zealand flight was held on the Sydney airport tarmac for two hours after arrival. Local media reported that incident involved a bomb threat, though Australian Federal Police later stated there was “no threat to the community.”
