Emergency descent over Raglan

On the morning of Friday 30th, an Air New Zealand jet with 76 passengers and 5 crew (Registration ZK-NGI Flight 414) en route from Wellington to Auckland had to make an emergency descent over Raglan just after 8am. Loss of cabin pressure required a text-book descent of the Boeing 737-300 from 33,000 feet to 7,000 feet.

The pilot had been praised for his quick response. At the end of the flight he came out of the cabin and said, “That was the real deal.” Oxygen masks dropped in the cabin for passengers to use when the pressure dropped. Although nobody was injured in the incident some passengers were reported as hyper-ventilating. 

Air New Zealand said that engineers are working to find the cause of the incident. The plane has been quarantined and two Transport Accident Commission inspectors are investigating. Voice and data recordings have already been handed over. The important message for air travellers is that they do need to pay attention to the preflight safety message.