Today’s New Zealand Herald newspaper reports that the Lan Chile Airbus A340 flying from Santiago, Chile, to Auckland, New Zealand, on Tuesday night came close to being hit “by blazing pieces of a Russian satellite hurtling into New Zealand airspace. The disintegrating satellite was so close to the aircraft that the pilot could hear the roar it made as it broke the sound barrier.…At the aircraft’s cruising speed of 880km/h it was within about 40 seconds of a potential catastrophe.”
On board the plane, asleep and unaware of this drama, were Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe and the entire Pet Shop Boys touring party. Lan Chile flight 801 left Santiago late on Monday evening and, crossing the International Date Line, arrived safely at Auckland at 4 am on Wednesday morning.
Pet Shop Boys perform their debut New Zealand concert tonight at the St James Theatre, Auckland.
PSB plane “40 seconds from air disaster”
On this day 30 years ago, Pet Shop Boys released their sixth studio album, “Bilingual”. This was taken in 1996 by Andy Earl during a publicity session for “Single-bilingual”.
Recent News
Pet Shop Boys are excited to announce that this October a new recording of “A man from the future” will be broadcast by the BBC as a world exclusive.
Pet Shop Boys are looking forward to their final “Dreamworld” shows of 2026 in Norway and Denmark this week.
A special double feature of the PSB film “It Couldn’t Happen Here” and the centenary version of Sergei Eisenstein’s “Battleship Potemkin” with the Pet Shop Boys score will be shown on October 11 at the Tyneside Cinema, Newcastle.
Neil Tennant is coming to Durham Book Festival on Saturday 10 October to talk to Fiona Hill about how growing up in Newcastle shaped his life as a musician
Pet Shop Boys are about to play four dates in four days in Germany, starting in Mönchengladbach this Friday and continuing at Berlin’s Waldbühne on Saturday.
Pet Shop Boys are pleased to announce DJ support acts for their “Dreamworld” shows in Germany this summer.