It was Air New Zealand to the rescue on Wednesday morning after a Qantas 747 was forced to "fly blind" over the Pacific Ocean.
The Qantas flight had to rely on an Air New Zealand jet to guide it to safety after its radar failed leaving the crew flying in darkness.
Passengers on the QF12 flight from Los Angeles to Sydney awoke to the surprise sunrise over Auckland city and the announcement the flight had been diverted, passenger Sean Lygo said.
"The captain was fantastic, he allowed us to sleep all night and we were unaware of any real problems.
"He woke us at around 5:30 just simply by saying 'good morning, hope you have slept well, I would like to tell you that we are on the way to New Zealand'."
Lygo said the captain then continued to inform the passengers they has lost the radar and were flying blind but had managed to befriend an Air New Zealand jet who was guiding them to safety.
The Air New Zealand flight was 35 kilometres away from the Qantas plane when the captain made radio contact asking for assistance.
The Air New Zealand 747 sat 1000m off QF12's port wing relaying across weather updates and guided the aircraft into Auckland Airport.
The reaction of the passengers and the flight crew was amazing said Lygo.
"They were all extremely passive and quite calm, amazingly calm, there was no panic and that was good.
"All the staff were just getting about their business quite normally and some passengers were taking photos of the plane that was next to us."
Upon landing in Auckland Lygo said by the time he had walked into the lounge crew were already repairing the aircraft with a new antenna that had been flown in from Sydney during the night.
It was then that Lygo said he had time to think about what had happened.
"I sat there and thought about it for a while and it's not exactly pleasant to imagine flying blind across the Pacific, but we are here and everybody is safe."
Lygo said there was nothing noticeably different about the flight, no bumps or jolts, just a jet sitting there on the port side.
Air New Zealand told ONE News that for their part the flight was very much routine and business as usual. It says it is not necessarily unusual for aircraft to relay information to others when conditions warrant it.
But the Australian airline has had a series of mid-air mishaps recently. Earlier this month a computer glitch was blamed for a severe nosedive which injured more than 70 people. And in July an oxygen tank exploded in a cargo hold, blowing a hole the size of a car in the side of a 747.
In comparison QF12 flight from Los Angeles was uneventful. After being fitted with its new radar in Auckland it eventually landing in Sydney four hours late.
