Air New Zealand's Boeing 747-419 ZK-NBW carried out a pre delivery flight from Auckland 19 October alighting from Auckland's damp runway 23 just after 3pm and returning some two hours later following out a flight that took it over Tauranga then to the north-northeast before heading back to Auckland for an instrument approach, missed approach and subsequent landing. It is set to depart Auckland on 31 October for Los Angeles and Tel Aviv.
ZK-NBW was delivered to Air NZ on 09 September 1999 when it arrived at Auckland direct from Paine Field, Seattle as ANZ6399. It entered service on the 20th of the same month as NZ121/122 Auckland-Melbourne-Auckland. Its final revenue flight for the airline was flown on 16 September 2011 as NZ137/138 Auckland-Brisbane-Auckland at which time it had accumulated around 5800 landings and 53700 hours.
A big thanks to VJ for sticking it out in inclement weather to catch ZK-NBW departing on its 19 October flight.
