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Flight takes off in 2018, but lands in 2017 — and people are very amused

A file photo of a Hawaiian Airlines plane at the Honolulu airport. Francis Dean/Corbis via Getty Images

A flight by Hawaiian Airlines did some serious time travelling this week.

The commercial flight departed Auckland, New Zealand at 12:05 a.m. local time on Jan. 1, 2018 — just five minutes into the new year — after a 10-minute delay.

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Then, the eight-hour flight landed at its destination of Honolulu, Hawaii at 10:16 a.m. local time on Dec. 31, 2017.

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Honolulu is 23 hours behind Auckland, thanks to the mid-Pacific location of the international date line. The curious case of time travel occurred because the plane flew over the date line, and therefore back in time.

The trip was first noted by Sam Sweeney, who is a transportation reporter for ABC News.

Others quickly took note, and were very, very amused.

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Of course, there were a few time travelling jokes.

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While this flight’s trip gained the attention of social media users around the world, it wasn’t the only one travelling back into 2017.

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FlightRadar, a Twitter account that reports air traffic updates, noted that six aircraft took off from Taipei, Taiwan in 2018 but landed in North American cities in the previous year.

Two such trips touched down at Vancouver International Airport before the city welcomed 2018.

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