Air NZ 737 Turn-back and evacuation at Auckland
 

An Air NZ 737 has turned back shortly after departure from Auckland at around 0800 this morning. The landing was apparently uneventful, but was followed by smoke in the cabin, and a slide evacuation.

Luckily there was a TVNZ reporter on board (Cameron Bennett) :rolleyes:
But he did actually file a reasonable report, with no scare mongering, and a seemingly factual representation.

Sounds like a textbook evacuation.

From News.co.nz

National News

Air NZ passengers evacuated after emergency landing

9.25am Tuesday September 12, 2006


Around 100 passengers and crew on an Air New Zealand 737 have been evacuated down shutes after the plane made an emergency landing at Auckland domestic airport this morning.

Flight NZ503 bound for Christchurch returned to Auckland after an electrical fault was reported in the flight deck.

"While taxiing to the airport gate, a smell of fumes were reported in the flight deck and in line with standard operating procedure, the Captain decided to evacuate the aircraft," Air New Zealand said.

"This saw the 94 passengers and three cabin crew and two pilots exit the aircraft down emergency shutes."

The airline said it was helping customers to make alternative travel arrangements.

There are no reports of injuries.

- NZHERALD STAFF

That's funny, most of the evacuations I have heard of involve at least one injury caused by going down the slides :}

Hmmmmm, good point. Maybe they skipped that page. Although the 73 is of sufficiently short stature to mitigate that risk. Unless of course the captain decides to jump out his window and breaks his thumb :eek:

Confirmed- No injuries in evacuation
 

There was no panic and no injuries, it was well handled.

jolly good. Well handled all......but does anyone know what the actual problem was? One of the posts above says electrical, 3 News said undercarriage problem. Anyone know for sure?
DC

Apparently the pax were told (by cabin crew I think) it was a problem with the brakes?

The reporter I heard this morning said that the smoke smelled 'acrid' like electrical smoke.

A very surreal sight it was to see this morning....certainly got me thinking about EPs as we taxied by....

Good job crew.

The No 1 TRU is what the're looking at
 

An electrical problem related to a relay as was stated in the press, the smoke was not really bad but enough to leave anyway. The smell was evident before the smoke started, the brakes source was a myth, they were not even smoking when we left the aircraft.