They Were 10 Seconds From Impact | Air New Zealand Flight 60 Oct 22, 2026

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This is the story of air new zealand Flight 60, Ill be honest with you , I forget about air new zealand quite a bit, just because i never see it around here in north america. Or anywhere that i go really. So I would not have known about this incident if it were not for a subscriber telling me about it. So Thank you kind subscriber. If you want to tell me about an incident that you think is relatively unknown then you should shoot me an email.
On the 29th of July 2000 an air new zealand 767 was flying from auckland to Faleolo in western samoa. The plane had 165 passengers and 11 crew members on board. The plane lifted off at 6:18 pm from auckland and then headed into the pacific ocean the plane climbed and the pilots settled in for the flight. Before long it was time to get the plane onto the ground. As the pilots were about to hit their top of descent the pilots discussed the approach that they would be flying. They would be flying the VOR/ DME approach into the airport, the pilots decided to fly the VOR/DME approach as they had a notice which said that the ILS approach to runway 08 was unmonitored. Meaning that the mechanism that verified the ILS signals was out of commission, they could still use it but they had to be a bit cautious. Today they would be using the FALE arrival which. For this the jet would have to circle the airport at the 15 DME arc and then when it intersects the extended centre line the plane would have to make a right turn and then go in and land. DME or the distance measuring equipment, tells pilots how far they are from the airport. For the DME system to work theres a transmitter on the airport premises that blasts out a radio wave, the plane can then use this signal to calculate how far it is from the transmitter. This shows up as a DME value in the cockpit. 1 dme is one nautical mile. Its simple technology but its reliable. As the plane entered the arc the pilots could see the lights of the islands off in the distance to their right. As the plane flew the arc the ILS information showed up on the displays in the cockpit. For those of you that dont know the ILS or the instrument landing system is a set of radio transmitters on the ground that send out radio signals that the plane can use to figure out if its on the right glide path to get to the runway. They would be using this system to aid them in getting the plane down to the runway on this dark moonless night.
As the plane got onto the localizer the pilots could see the lights of the runway ahead in the darkness. Then as the plane flew towards the airport the pilots armed the approach mode on the plane. In this mode the plane will follow those radio signals all the way down to the runway. In this mode you have lateral and vertical guidance. As the autopilot took the plane down the captain started to prep the plane for a missed approach, he set the go around altitude on the mode control panel. But as they worked they thought to themselves as to how quickly the plane captured the glideslope. They had captured the glideslope going a bit faster than the captain wanted to be going so he then decided to turn his attention to slowing the plane down, the speed brakes were extended a bit and the gears dropped. The additional drag slowed the plane down to where the captain was now comfortable with the plane's energy state. With every thing a lot more to the captains liking he verified that the plane was on the localizer and on glide. The pilots started to then go through the landing checks. The captain then looked up after completing the landing checks and he expected to see the lights of the runway. They were quite low and the runway should be right in front of them but he said that he saw a mish mash of lights. He thought to himself that there must be a few clouds between the plane and the runway and thats why he couldnt see the runway. He looked at the instrument panel. The DME value which tells you how far you are from the airport read 8, this didnt compute in his mind if they were so low then they had to be closer to the runway but here was his plane telling him that he