Air New Zealand Flight 4374
Fokker F-27 Friendship · Controlled flight into terrain
From Gisborne Airport (GIS) to Auckland International Airport (AKL)
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- Unknown
- Survivors
- 2
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- 2
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Airline
Fokker F-27 Friendship
- Flight
- NZ4374
- Aircraft type
- Fokker F-27
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- ZK-NFC
- Operator
- Air New Zealand
- Onboard fatalities
- 2
- Route
- From Gisborne Airport (GIS)To Auckland International Airport (AKL)
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Psychological
- Environmental issues › Conditions/weather/phenomena
- Personnel issues › Task performance
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Not plotted · Not plotted: the Wikipedia article gives no coordinates, and its site names no town or airport that matches exactly.
From the Wikipedia article
Air New Zealand Flight 4374 was a flight from Gisborne which crashed while landing at Auckland in poor weather, killing two of the four people on board.
Crash and rescue
At 14:28 the aircraft had descended to 3000 feet and the pilots deployed the flaps. The aircraft's speed was 165 knots, and increased to 211 knots; 2 minutes 14 seconds later the aircraft crashed into the harbour 1km west of the intended runway, killing two, the captain and a passenger. At the time of the crash, Auckland was experiencing its heaviest rainfall in 43 years, and the visibility was officially described as "restricted".
An Air New Zealand Boeing 737 aircraft which departed 2 minutes after the crash attempted to alert the control tower about the accident. However, the controllers denied that they were alerted.
Two survivors were found supporting themselves on the tip of the aircraft fuselage and were rescued by navy divers in two rubber inflatable Zodiac boats. Rescue efforts were hindered due to strong rips in the harbour. The two survivors were taken to Middlemore Hospital. Captain Circuitt's body was freed by navy divers around 3.5 hours after the crash, whilst engineer John Forbes's body was recovered later that night. At the time of the accident, Auckland Airport's rescue hovercraft was undergoing an overhaul and was unable to serve the downed aircraft, further hindering rescue efforts. The hovercraft was also known to be unreliable, sparking discussion on the airport's rescue response and safety.
The aircraft wreckage was recovered through the use of inflatable bags, floating the wreck back to shore.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
The aircraft's flight recorders (black boxes) was recovered and sent to Melbourne for investigation by the Australian Ministry of Transport Air Safety Investigation Branch.
The investigation found that the crew were likely misled by a visual illusion due to a rain shower obscuring the runway threshold during their base turn. This, coupled with a failure to monitor their flight instruments effectively due to the pilots believing they were at a safe height, caused the aircraft to crash into the harbour.
Text from the Wikipedia article “Air New Zealand Flight 4374” (revision 1350164216, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: Air New Zealand Flight 4374
- Article
- Air New Zealand Flight 4374
- Revision
- 1350164216 · 2026-04-20 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q29018017
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "Air New Zealand Flight 4374" (page 53551732, revision 1350164216)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site; country from Wikidata (P17)
- Map position
- none
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- airline flight number in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.