Auckland flooded/closed

litz · Fri Jan 27, 2023 5:08 pm

Some impressively amazing flooding going on in NZ, flooded/closed the airport for at least 24 hrs.

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/01/27/phot ... -downpour/

aerohottie · Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:31 pm

Wow! Being next to the sea I would never have thought AKL would be a flood risk

rampbro · Fri Jan 27, 2023 9:39 pm

Bring in the floatplanes, I say.

rushed · Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:19 pm

Quite a few diversions as a result. A LATAM 787 into Wellington and a couple of NZ wide bodies into CHC. Few turn backs too including Emirates and Air Canada.

zkncj · Fri Jan 27, 2023 10:27 pm

Domestic is about to resume at midday, with international arrivals again from 4:30am tomorrow morning.

https://twitter.com/AKL_Airport/status/1619094700128096257?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

They had just repaired the landing lights at 9:30pm, then the airport got flooded. A NZ 77W from Melbourne took out some of the landing lights on arrival last night.

FiscAutTecGarte · Fri Jan 27, 2023 11:21 pm

decades ago many kiwis could be seen walking barefoot in public.... this could bring that back..

STLflyer · Fri Jan 27, 2023 11:47 pm

LAN801 diverted to WLG, but then continued to SYD a few hours later. Would that have been flown by the same crew that flew the 12 hour SCL-WLG flight?

I’d have figured normally a separate crew flies the AKL-SYD-AKL legs, but obviously they wouldn’t have been in WLG.

NTLDaz · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:04 am

STLflyer wrote:
LAN801 diverted to WLG, but then continued to SYD a few hours later. Would that have been flown by the same crew that flew the 12 hour SCL-WLG flight?

I’d have figured normally a separate crew flies the AKL-SYD-AKL legs, but obviously they wouldn’t have been in WLG.

My understanding is a new crew takes over in AKL and does AKL - SYD - AKL ( but could be wrong ). This would cause issues at the Sydney end.

mrkerr7474 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:05 am

STLflyer wrote:
LAN801 diverted to WLG, but then continued to SYD a few hours later. Would that have been flown by the same crew that flew the 12 hour SCL-WLG flight?

I’d have figured normally a separate crew flies the AKL-SYD-AKL legs, but obviously they wouldn’t have been in WLG.

That's correct, it would be a separate crew doing those turns. But the same crew from SCL would have continued to SYD. I'd presume that the return flight would directly go from SYD to SCL with AKL still closed for internationals until tomorrow morning

There were a lot of diversions last night in AKL

NTLDaz · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:09 am

mrkerr7474 wrote:
STLflyer wrote:
LAN801 diverted to WLG, but then continued to SYD a few hours later. Would that have been flown by the same crew that flew the 12 hour SCL-WLG flight?

I’d have figured normally a separate crew flies the AKL-SYD-AKL legs, but obviously they wouldn’t have been in WLG.

That's correct, it would be a separate crew doing those turns. But the same crew from SCL would have continued to SYD. I'd presume that the return flight would directly go from SYD to SCL with AKL still closed for internationals until tomorrow morning

There were a lot of diversions last night in AKL

Yeah, they need to get that plane back to Santiago.

zkncj · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:20 am

NTLDaz wrote:
mrkerr7474 wrote:
STLflyer wrote:
LAN801 diverted to WLG, but then continued to SYD a few hours later. Would that have been flown by the same crew that flew the 12 hour SCL-WLG flight?

I’d have figured normally a separate crew flies the AKL-SYD-AKL legs, but obviously they wouldn’t have been in WLG.

That's correct, it would be a separate crew doing those turns. But the same crew from SCL would have continued to SYD. I'd presume that the return flight would directly go from SYD to SCL with AKL still closed for internationals until tomorrow morning

There were a lot of diversions last night in AKL

Yeah, they need to get that plane back to Santiago.

Unless they get a private jet to fly the crew from AKL-SYD, then that 787 is going to be stuck in SYD. Until the current crew have had there min rest break.

mrkerr7474 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:36 am

zkncj wrote:
NTLDaz wrote:
mrkerr7474 wrote:

That's correct, it would be a separate crew doing those turns. But the same crew from SCL would have continued to SYD. I'd presume that the return flight would directly go from SYD to SCL with AKL still closed for internationals until tomorrow morning

There were a lot of diversions last night in AKL

Yeah, they need to get that plane back to Santiago.

Unless they get a private jet to fly the crew from AKL-SYD, then that 787 is going to be stuck in SYD. Until the current crew have had there min rest break.

That's true. The flight will probably be cancelled today and potentially to back to AKL tomorrow where the crew currently there will fly the plane back to SCL.

Toenga · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:46 am

A lot of planes out of position, and some flights completely cancelled.
With the current high loads in and out of NZ, it must make it extremely challenging to accomodate those displaced from cancelled flights. So not a good time for a short notice essential journey, or working in NZ reservations.
Greg Foran could not have imagined that his time as CEO would be so externally challenged.

NTLDaz · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:53 am

zkncj wrote:
NTLDaz wrote:
mrkerr7474 wrote:

That's correct, it would be a separate crew doing those turns. But the same crew from SCL would have continued to SYD. I'd presume that the return flight would directly go from SYD to SCL with AKL still closed for internationals until tomorrow morning

There were a lot of diversions last night in AKL

Yeah, they need to get that plane back to Santiago.

Unless they get a private jet to fly the crew from AKL-SYD, then that 787 is going to be stuck in SYD. Until the current crew have had there min rest break.

Yeah it is cancelled. This is actually going to be a bit of a nightmare for quite a few airlines.

a320fan · Sat Jan 28, 2023 6:33 am

EK returned to DXB. Would be pretty peeved to be a pax on that flight and fly 14 hours to nowhere. Guess all the other options had too many complications.

IrishAyes · Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:15 am

woof. legit flew out of AKL en route from SYD to ORD on LATAM a few weeks ago. this is bananas

zkojq · Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:34 am

A few repositioning flights this afternoon:

NZ6232 CHC-AKL ZK-OKP 777-300ER (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ104 from SYD)

NZ6234 CHC-AKL ZK-OKO 777-300ER (diverted from AKL this morning when operating NZ7 from SFO)

NZ6230 CHC-AKL ZK-NZG 787-9 (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ971 from TBU)

NZ6146 CHC-AKL ZK-NZH 787-9 (diverted from AKL this morning when operating NZ23 from YVR)

NZ6236 CHC-AKL ZK-NZJ 787-9 (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ106 from SYD)

NZ6238 CHC-AKL ZK-NZI 787-9 (diverted from AKL this morning when operating NZ9 from HNL)

NZ6144 CHC-AKL ZK-NZF 787-9 (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ126 from MEL)

NZ801 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:38 am

zkojq wrote:
A few repositioning flights this afternoon:

NZ6232 CHC-AKL ZK-OKP 777-300ER (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ104 from SYD)

NZ6234 CHC-AKL ZK-OKO 777-300ER (diverted from AKL this morning when operating NZ7 from SFO)

NZ6230 CHC-AKL ZK-NZG 787-9 (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ971 from TBU)

NZ6146 CHC-AKL ZK-NZH 787-9 (diverted from AKL this morning when operating NZ23 from YVR)

NZ6236 CHC-AKL ZK-NZJ 787-9 (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ106 from SYD)

NZ6238 CHC-AKL ZK-NZI 787-9 (diverted from AKL this morning when operating NZ9 from HNL)

NZ6144 CHC-AKL ZK-NZF 787-9 (diverted from AKL last night when operating NZ126 from MEL)

Some weren’t just repositioning, they were full of pax.

zeke · Sat Jan 28, 2023 8:03 am

a320fan wrote:
EK returned to DXB. Would be pretty peeved to be a pax on that flight and fly 14 hours to nowhere. Guess all the other options had too many complications.

You would be surprised just how long you need to stay in the air to get below maximum landing weight when flying ultra long haul.

Hope the fuel and fuel systems at the airport are not impacted.

jimbo737 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:56 am

10” of rain fell on Friday in Auckland. Yes. 10 inches.

It was biblical.

I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere on the planet.

It simply pi$$ed down all day like the hardest passing Caribbean or Amazon downpour you’ve ever seen, except it never stopped.

The sun was out on Saturday. With any luck, international flights will resume Monday.

zkojq · Sat Jan 28, 2023 12:22 pm

Will be interesting to see what damage has been done to airport infrastructure, once all the assessments are complete. The baggage belt and all the advanced electronic equipment that MPI/Biosecurity uses could all be quite vulnerable.

The situation inside was dire. About two thousand passengers were stuck airside in the international terminal overnight. Many without food/water and the terminal ran out of toilet paper leading to sanitation issues. Then at around 0500L the airport tried to kick everyone out (in the middle of a State Of Emergency, with the airport cut off from flooding and transport/accommodation not being easily available).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4TnF0V4f1TY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0ETAGrH0C0

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/01/28/pass ... o-nowhere/

https://www.1news.co.nz/2023/01/28/81-y ... d-airport/

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/483 ... k-tomorrow

jimbo737 wrote:
10” of rain fell on Friday in Auckland. Yes. 10 inches.

It was biblical.

249mm (10 inches) in a 24 hour period. The previous record prior to Friday was 161mm in a 24 hour period, so more than 50% higher. Crazy,

By far the highest rainfall I've ever seen and it just didn't relent for hours. There's a huge amount of damage done to the city other than just the airport. Communities that are less than 200 meters from the sea yet still managed to get covered by nearly a meter of flooding.

aemoreira1981 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 2:54 pm

That flooding has at least 3 deaths so far. Were those diverted NZ flights able to get to their home base? I see NZ2 as canceled for today as well.

As for the heaviest rain per hour I have experienced, it has been 750 cm per hour (3 inches) in August 2021.

aemoreira1981 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 3:31 pm

aemoreira1981 wrote:
That flooding has at least 3 deaths so far. Were those diverted NZ flights able to get to their home base? I see NZ2 as canceled for today as well.

As for the heaviest rain per hour I have experienced, it has been 750 cm per hour (3 inches) in August 2021.

Millimeters, not centimeters.

bennett123 · Sat Jan 28, 2023 3:53 pm

750mm is 30 inches.

DTWLAX · Sat Jan 28, 2023 6:13 pm

zeke wrote:
a320fan wrote:
EK returned to DXB. Would be pretty peeved to be a pax on that flight and fly 14 hours to nowhere. Guess all the other options had too many complications.

You would be surprised just how long you need to stay in the air to get below maximum landing weight when flying ultra long haul.

Hope the fuel and fuel systems at the airport are not impacted.

Was landing at another airport in New Zealand or Australia not an option? Especially that long into a flight? What are the alternate options to Auckland for long haul flights in case of diversions?

UALifer · Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:22 pm

DTWLAX wrote:
zeke wrote:
a320fan wrote:
EK returned to DXB. Would be pretty peeved to be a pax on that flight and fly 14 hours to nowhere. Guess all the other options had too many complications.

You would be surprised just how long you need to stay in the air to get below maximum landing weight when flying ultra long haul.

Hope the fuel and fuel systems at the airport are not impacted.

Was landing at another airport in New Zealand or Australia not an option? Especially that long into a flight? What are the alternate options to Auckland for long haul flights in case of diversions?

Likely that they wanted the aircraft back at DXB. If you divert to another airport (e.g. CHC), you likely don’t have a crew to fly the aircraft back to DXB until the crew operating DXB-CHC has had their rest period. I’m sure they didn’t want to impact even more flights on that aircraft’s scheduled routing, not to mention have to ferry an aircraft ~16+ hours back to DXB with no passengers on it.

ZK-NBT · Sat Jan 28, 2023 7:50 pm

UALifer wrote:
DTWLAX wrote:
zeke wrote:

You would be surprised just how long you need to stay in the air to get below maximum landing weight when flying ultra long haul.

Hope the fuel and fuel systems at the airport are not impacted.

Was landing at another airport in New Zealand or Australia not an option? Especially that long into a flight? What are the alternate options to Auckland for long haul flights in case of diversions?

Likely that they wanted the aircraft back at DXB. If you divert to another airport (e.g. CHC), you likely don’t have a crew to fly the aircraft back to DXB until the crew operating DXB-CHC has had their rest period. I’m sure they didn’t want to impact even more flights on that aircraft’s scheduled routing, not to mention have to ferry an aircraft ~16+ hours back to DXB with no passengers on it.

Yep that would be it, AA turned back to DFW, AC back to YVR.

NZ ended up with aircraft everywhere mainly CHC which is a home base and easy to get fresh crew to, they also had aircraft divert to HNL/RAR/SYD/BNE.

CHC is the main diversion point for long haul, LA did land their 787 in WLG along with several short haul services, OHA can be used but there are no facilities there, EK file OHA usually which was unavailable a couple of weeks back so they scheduled a fuel stop in SIN as CHC is to far.

Toenga · Sat Jan 28, 2023 9:05 pm

Central Auckland Albert Park received 299mm of rain in 36hrs.

ZKNZR · Sun Jan 29, 2023 12:57 am

I see AKL seems to be back up and running now. Does anyone have any info on the extent of the damage, particularly inside the terminal? I can’t imagine it was just a ‘dry & go’ situation.

zkojq · Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:26 am

NZ6073 currently descending into Auckland from HNL. This (ZK-NZR) was NZ1 which diverted to HNL early on. All things considered, a 30 hour delay for the pax getting arriving doesn't sound too bad.

zkncj · Sun Jan 29, 2023 1:35 am

ZKNZR wrote:
I see AKL seems to be back up and running now. Does anyone have any info on the extent of the damage, particularly inside the terminal? I can’t imagine it was just a ‘dry & go’ situation.

From Social Media NZ was saying some of there automated bag drops had been damaged, and to expect long lines as they were having to use human operated manual bag drops.

jawnbc · Sun Jan 29, 2023 4:51 am

The rain was extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. The only comparable rain torrents I've encountered were in tropical cyclones/hurricanes--but this was a steady heavy downpour that at times trebled into a waterfall. Our place is 70m above sea level and our street has sand debris from the street flooding. The "creek" behind the houses across our street flooded around 5m deep at the narrowest points. Several homes were flooded and lots of parked cars were damaged too. And we weren't anywhere near the worst of it. It's no small irony that Auckland is currently installing a (somewhat) proper rainwater system because of surface flooding in more routine storms. Though it's possible no system could have coped with this one at its peak. And it's raining again today, albeit in squalls.

zkncj · Sun Jan 29, 2023 7:10 am

Hopefully the airport company has sorted out some better flood protection for the terminal.

The government civil defence agency just pushed out a emergency notification to all smart phones in Auckland, warning of major thunder storms approaching and upto another 150mm of rain appraoching.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/civil-defence-sends-weather-warning-alert-to-aucklanders-phones/DN27EJMU65E6HLY73IEOH6KIOI/

NZ516 · Sun Jan 29, 2023 10:43 am

Amazing a passenger was told that Auckland Airport will be closed for a month. How bad that advice is, and it's so misleading for a couple who are trying to return home to NZ.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/travel/travel-t ... passengers

zkojq · Sun Jan 29, 2023 5:10 pm

Not sure what relevance people see in Houston?

ZK-OKN's runway excursion was at 1740.

https://avherald.com/h?article=504562c4&opt=0

747megatop · Sun Jan 29, 2023 8:37 pm

rampbro wrote:
Bring in the floatplanes, I say.

Don't forget the boats :-)

litz · Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:37 am

jimbo737 wrote:
10” of rain fell on Friday in Auckland. Yes. 10 inches.

It was biblical.

I’ve never seen anything like it anywhere on the planet.

It simply pi$$ed down all day like the hardest passing Caribbean or Amazon downpour you’ve ever seen, except it never stopped.

The sun was out on Saturday. With any luck, international flights will resume Monday.

I've seen that happen here in the southeast US, from tropical storms.

The prodigious amount of rain one of those systems can produce is really hard to believe unless you see or witness it. Surprisingly, it can often exceed (by a considerable amount) the rains dropped by actual hurricanes.

Alberto, in 1994, dropped so much rain on Macon, GA, that an entire freeway interchange was flooded, some 25+ feet deep. All you could see was the tops of the light poles.

litz · Mon Jan 30, 2023 1:40 am

jawnbc wrote:
The rain was extraordinary, absolutely extraordinary. The only comparable rain torrents I've encountered were in tropical cyclones/hurricanes--but this was a steady heavy downpour that at times trebled into a waterfall. Our place is 70m above sea level and our street has sand debris from the street flooding. The "creek" behind the houses across our street flooded around 5m deep at the narrowest points. Several homes were flooded and lots of parked cars were damaged too. And we weren't anywhere near the worst of it. It's no small irony that Auckland is currently installing a (somewhat) proper rainwater system because of surface flooding in more routine storms. Though it's possible no system could have coped with this one at its peak. And it's raining again today, albeit in squalls.

Truly, you can plan and plan and plan, and then mother nature throws something like this at you and it just exceeds anything the planned system can handle.

As someone noted in another post, it does no good to pump from drains, when the pump's exit is also underwater.

Kiwirob · Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:34 am

FiscAutTecGarte wrote:
decades ago many kiwis could be seen walking barefoot in public.... this could bring that back..

Many decades ago, we still do, same as wearing pyjamas to the supermarket on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

zkncj · Mon Jan 30, 2023 5:57 am

Kiwirob wrote:
FiscAutTecGarte wrote:
decades ago many kiwis could be seen walking barefoot in public.... this could bring that back..

Many decades ago, we still do, same as wearing pyjamas to the supermarket on Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Many were on Friday Night too, especially in the International terminal.

zkojq · Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:43 am

Not a good sign at all:

‘No flights until March’, passengers stranded in Singapore told after Auckland flood disruption
Hundreds of passengers stranded in Singapore have been told they may have to wait until early March for flights back to Auckland.

Travellers whose travel to New Zealand was cancelled by this weekend’s extreme weather have found it near impossible to book on to new flights. Due to this disruption during the peak travel season stranded passengers are finding few seats on extremely full aircraft.

The flooding at Auckland’s International terminal shut the runway to all aircraft for around 37 hours at the weekend. More than 40 international arrivals were suspended on Saturday alone, over half of which were operated by Air New Zealand.

Passenger Richard was returning to Auckland on Friday with his wife and two children after a trip overseas.For the past three days they have been looking for a way home and counting a growing travel insurance claim. Richard’s eldest child was supposed to start high school this week. “We’re packing our bags each morning and going to the airport as early as possible, to see what standby seats are available.”

They were among about 270 passengers on flight NZ283 on Friday, which was cancelled without a plane to operate. With little further information, passengers were disembarked and told to wait to be contacted by the airline.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/no-fl ... GEDDCGY6Q/

ZK-NBT · Tue Jan 31, 2023 8:47 am

zkojq wrote:
Not a good sign at all:

‘No flights until March’, passengers stranded in Singapore told after Auckland flood disruption
Hundreds of passengers stranded in Singapore have been told they may have to wait until early March for flights back to Auckland.

Travellers whose travel to New Zealand was cancelled by this weekend’s extreme weather have found it near impossible to book on to new flights. Due to this disruption during the peak travel season stranded passengers are finding few seats on extremely full aircraft.

The flooding at Auckland’s International terminal shut the runway to all aircraft for around 37 hours at the weekend. More than 40 international arrivals were suspended on Saturday alone, over half of which were operated by Air New Zealand.

Passenger Richard was returning to Auckland on Friday with his wife and two children after a trip overseas.For the past three days they have been looking for a way home and counting a growing travel insurance claim. Richard’s eldest child was supposed to start high school this week. “We’re packing our bags each morning and going to the airport as early as possible, to see what standby seats are available.”

They were among about 270 passengers on flight NZ283 on Friday, which was cancelled without a plane to operate. With little further information, passengers were disembarked and told to wait to be contacted by the airline.

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/no-fl ... GEDDCGY6Q/

Odd pax have to rebook themselves, something doesn’t add up.

Anyway SQ A380 to operate again 31/1 ex SIN as SQ285. 200 more seats than the 77W.

zkojq · Tue Jan 31, 2023 11:54 am

ZK-NBT wrote:

Odd pax have to rebook themselves, something doesn’t add up.

Anyway SQ A380 to operate again 31/1 ex SIN as SQ285. 200 more seats than the 77W.

Excellent news. Very convenient that Singapore Airlines has the capacity available inorder to add these extra A380 services.

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