A late-night flight from Auckland bound to Tauranga was turned around after lanterns floating into the airspace sparked safety concerns.

Police were called to reports at 9pm on Friday of “floating lanterns” that were ending up in the flight path of incoming flight NZ5145.

Police said they were aware of the incident.

“Police were called by Air Traffic Control around 9pm with a report that floating lanterns had been released from an unknown location in Tauranga, that were ending up in the flight path.

“Police responded to the area where the lanterns were thought to be coming from, however no one was seen and no further lanterns had been released.”

An Air New Zealand spokesperson told the Herald flight NZ5145 from Auckland to Tauranga last night returned to Auckland due to the lanterns in the airspace.

She downplayed any safety concerns and said pilots were notified of the lanterns well in advance.

Tauranga City Council said it was not aware of any planned events or festivals.

Flight passenger Rebecca Sharp told TVNZ’s 1News the plane was close to landing when it banked off suddenly.

“The pilot said there’d been an unexpected situation of Chinese lanterns across the airspace and that we’d gone into a holding pattern.

“Then they said they couldn’t clear it, so we’re going to have to return to Auckland.”

Sharp’s daughter who had waited for her at Tauranga airport described the lanterns as a “huge cluster of stars”.

Once Sharp arrived back in Auckland, she hired a car and drove down to Tauranga.

She said the only other options were to wait for a bus into Tauranga which left at 10am today or a new flight bound for the city at 6pm.

“It would have been quite good if they had actually just outlined the policy a bit, because there were a lot of distressed people.”