Technical issues forced a plane to circle back on itself after take-off, returning to Auckland Airport after two hours for "precautionary reasons".
Virgin Australia flight VA91 from Auckland to Apia was forced to turn around due to a minor technical issue, a Virgin Australia spokesman said.
One of the operational computer systems was showing an error message.
By all accounts the aircraft was safe to fly but obviously for precautionary reasons they returned to Auckland and that error was rectified," he said.
The airline apologised for any inconvenience and added that the passengers would be on their way to Apia "shortly".
An Auckland Airport spokeswoman said the plane landed safely back at Auckland Airport on Monday.
The passengers were put on to another aircraft.
Flight Radar 24 said the scheduled time departure for the flight was 4.25pm, however it did not get off the ground until 6.19pm.
It was diverted back to Auckland and landed at around 8.20pm Flight Radar 24 showed.
Photo: Flight path of VA91 from Aukcland to Apia