Air NZ plane stranded in Hong Kong

"the flightless bird" as captioned by the Twitter user who posted it. (Supplied)
"the flightless bird" as captioned by the Twitter user who posted it. (Supplied)

Around 300 Air New Zealand passengers have been left stranded in a Hong Kong airport terminal after a mechanical issue affecting one of their plane's engines meant they couldn't depart.

Disgruntled passengers have taken to Twitter, complaining about the lack of communication from Air New Zealand, with one passenger saying they face a 12 to 14 hour wait and will be sleeping in the departure terminal.

Twitter user Ian Henderson has been live tweeting the incident and claims Air NZ has told passengers it is stretched to find accommodation.

The airline itself asked stranded customers for patience and highlighted "very limited accommodation options currently in Hong Kong".

A spokesperson for Air NZ, Brigitte Ransom, confirmed this in a statement, saying the airline is battling with the bad timing of a national holiday and bad weather.

"Unfortunately Hong Kong is currently extremely busy due to the Mid-Autumn Festival and national holiday and this has been compounded by very poor weather conditions in the region, which has caused the cancellation of a number of other carriers' flights out of Hong Kong. We have been unable to secure hotel rooms to accommodate all of the customers on this flight.

"Around 80 customers remained in the terminal overnight and they have been provided with meal vouchers, blankets and pillows as well as water and snacks. They are also being offered a cash payment as a gesture of goodwill for their inconvenience," she says.

Mr Henderson says passengers are being resilient and taking it in their stride, despite infants and elderly having to endure a night in a terminal. According to the New Zealand Herald Chairman of Air NZ, Tony Carter, was also on the Air NZ flight, and he too spent the night in the terminal.

The plane is due to depart at 1:50pm local time (6:50pm NZT), and passengers have since been given vouchers to spend on food.

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