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Passengers flew 16 hours from Auckland... back to Auckland, after JFK terminal closed

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Imagine getting on a 16-hour flight that ends in the exact same place it began. That's what happened yesterday to the unlucky passengers of Air New Zealand Flight NZ2.

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

The plane left from Auckland and should have arrived at New York's JFK International Airport Terminal One in the early evening. Unfortunately, an electrical fire in the terminal caused a power outage, shutting it down and affecting more than 130 flights.

SUMMERS: So somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, halfway into its nearly 9,000-mile journey, Flight NZ2 had to make a U-turn back to Auckland.

CHANG: What a nightmare. A 16-hour flight is bad enough, but at least you get somewhere, right? The airline is rebooking those unlucky passengers, so here's hoping their next long flight actually ends up in New York City.

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Oliver Dearden
Oliver Dearden is a supervising producer for All Things Considered. He line produces the show, working with producers and editors to get the show on air each day. Before ATC, Dearden was a producer with Weekend Edition and Morning Edition, and a senior producer for BBC radio.