A Malaysia Airlines pilot had an unexpected Christmas surprise when his flight took off from Auckland Airport and headed in the wrong direction.
Only eight minutes off the ground, the pilot of the direct flight to Kuala Lumpur on Friday questioned the direction the plane was headed - which was taking the flight further south than he had planned.
He contacted air traffic controllers at the Auckland Oceanic control centre soon just minutes after the 2.23am takeoff.
Control staff on the ground informed him of the slightly different route the plane was undertaking to get to the destination.
This route would be communicated to Airways, and then get passed on to air traffic controllers. Air traffic would then direct the flight's take off and landing, and a route would be programmed into the plane to provide turning points and direction for the pilot.
A spokeswoman for Airways said the glitch could be explained by a miscommunication of plans.
"The flight path the airline filed us was going to Kuala Lumpur, but following a slightly different flight plan that the pilot had on board."
"Quite quickly after taking off the pilot realised that the direction that we were sending him in was different."
The plane was headed towards Melbourne, rather than taking a more direct route to the Malaysian capital.
After talking to the bemused pilot, Airways uploaded their flight route to the airborne plane.
The pilot adjusted to the surprise, continuing across the Tasman Sea before heading north-west to the destination.
The spokeswoman said the new route was in fact an established flight plan to Kuala Lumpur - but not the one the pilot had planned to follow.
"Airlines often choose different flight plans depending on weather and other variables."
The spokeswoman said Airways would be looking into the incident.
She said passengers on board the flight were at no point in any danger, as the flight was still under radar control.
The glitch comes after a precarious couple of years for Malaysia Airlines.
Flight MH370 disappeared between Kuala Lumpur and Beijing in March 2014 with 227 passengers and 12 air cabin crew.
Then flight MH17 was shot down by a Russian-made missile over Ukraine in July 2014.
Airways said it didn't think passengers on board the flight were made aware of the glitch.
It said no time was lost for passengers on board.