The official said the CAA would late on Friday issue a "notam," or notice to airmen, warning of a danger area in a corridor of the Auckland oceanic flight information region (FIR).
The corridor is used by long-haul aircraft between Auckland and Rarotonga, Auckland and Tahiti, and Auckland and Los Angeles, the official said.
The 130-ton Mir is expected to break up in an area slightly to the east of Fiji, and debris will fall to the southeast of that location in a 120-mile-wide corridor. Most of the space station is expected to burn up on reentry but some pieces weighing as much as 318 pounds could still land, New Zealand civil defense officials say.
"The notam will advise [pilots] that we consider a corridor through our Auckland oceanic FIR to be a danger area during the period of the Mir re-entry." the CAA official said.
"We won't activate that danger area until we have more accurate information on timing."
"Its up to them if they fly through it or not. It is not a prohibitive notice."
'Infinitesimal' danger
However the chances of an aircraft being hit by Mir debris were infinitesimal, the official said.
Mariners are also being warned of the dangers of traveling through the area.
Tony Martin, deputy director of the Maritime Safety Authority, said the authority issued a navigation warning about a fortnight ago which would remain in force until Mir had splashed down. He said few ships traveled through that part of the Pacific Ocean, though it was used by deep sea fishing boats.
"The chances of any shipping being there is pretty small, and certainly the chances of them being affected is remote."
"The whole area was chosen because it is known as the space junk graveyard."
New Zealand's Ministry of Civil Defense and Emergency Management said the Mir was unlikely to pose a risk to New Zealand.
There are no radioactive, biological, chemical, or other dangerous materials on board "so in that respect it poses no danger," the ministry said.
New Zealand had reconvened a top-level committee of specialists who monitor the re-entry of space debris near New Zealand. It includes officials from the Prime Minister's Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Police, defense forces, the CAA and the Maritime Safety Authority.
Weighing in from Tonga
Meanwhile, the Tongan Government said that it had received information on the imminent Mir splashdown from New Zealand. Lupe 'Ilaiu, secretary to Tongan Prime Minister Prince Lavaka Ata 'Ulukalala, said that the government had not yet issued a position statement on Mir.
But an amateur astronomer in the capital Nuku'alofa, Kik Velt, said there were only two possibilities for Tonga.
"One is that it won't fall on Tonga. The other is that it will fall on Tonga. If it does fall on Tonga, we can yell for compensation and we might get much more than Tonga has ever earned in many years put together."
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