An Air New Zealand plane bound for Tonga was forced to return to Auckland on Wednesday by the plume from a volcano near the capital Nuku'alofa, the Civil Aviation Authority said, according to dpa. The flight left Auckland at 7:30 am (1830 Tuesday GMT), but turned back after another pilot flying near the destination airport smelled sulphur dioxide. Aviation authority chief meteorological officer Peter Lechner said sulphur dioxide could cause breathing difficulties for passengers and crew on the aeroplane. He also said there was ash in the 5,000-foot volcanic plume of gas and steam. Volcanic ash "can get into the engines and basically stop the engines, but it can also get into all sorts of other parts of the aeroplane and cause critical problems," he told dpa. "We have had ash getting into fuel switching systems and causing the fuel supply to stop." It was the third day of disruptions for the airline's services to the South Pacific archipelago.
