Air New Zealand plane turned back from China for referring to Taiwan as country

By Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer
2019/02/12

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — An Air New Zealand flight bound for Shanghai was forced to turn back on Saturday (Feb. 9) by Chinese authorities because it referred to Taiwan as a country, reported Stuff.

Air NZ flight 289, which was bound for Shanghai, was forced to turn back to Auckland after several hours in the air because Chinese authorities deemed that its application to land in China contained wording that indicated Taiwan is an independent country, according to sources cited by Stuff.

The issue reportedly involved documentation from New Zealand’s Civil Aviation Authority, which had been included with Air New Zealand’s application to enable the plane to make a landing in China. The source told the news site that the Chinese were “very explicit” about what they wanted the wording to be, but it apparently had yet to be addressed by the time the plane was in the air.

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