Runway blackout causes air travel chaos in New Zealand

WELLINGTON - An electrical fault which blacked out the runway lights caused nearly 20 flights to be diverted from Auckland International Airport, disrupting hundreds of passengers over the weekend.

The lights went out 90 minutes before midnight Saturday and incoming flights were diverted to Wellington, Hamilton and Christchurch, while a flight from Chile turned back to land in Tahiti.

Landings resumed at 4:20 a.m. Sunday when a flight from Samoa touched down.

Stranded passengers at Auckland and Christchurch had to camp in the terminals overnight, Radio New Zealand reported.