An All Nippon Airways flight to Seattle was reportedly forced to return to Tokyo on Tuesday
A plane flying from Tokyo to the US reportedly had to return to Japan on Tuesday after a drunken passenger bit a crew member.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) Flight 118 was forced to return to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport when a “heavily intoxicated” 55-year-old passenger from the US bit a crew member’s hand, an ANA spokesman said, multiple media reported including The Japan Times.
The ANA flight, which had 159 passengers on board, took off at 9:47 p.m. local time and was headed to Seattle before diverting back to Haneda Airport, according to live air traffic website Flight Radar 24.
An ANA flight was forced to return to Tokyo after a passenger bit a crew member.
Kosuke Okahara/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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A crew member suffered minor injuries in the attack, reports CNN. The unnamed passenger was taken into custody by the police shortly after the flight returned to the capital, the airline’s spokesperson announced.
After landing in Tokyo, the American passenger told investigators that he had “no recollection” of his actions on the flight, Japanese television station TBS reported, according to The Japan Times.
“The safety and security of our passengers and employees is ANA’s top priority, and we will take all necessary actions to ensure this,” the airline told PEOPLE in a statement on Wednesday. “On January 16, NH118 departing from Tokyo Haneda to Seattle turned back mid-flight due to an intoxicated passenger who was behaving in an unsafe manner towards the crew and passengers.”
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“Upon arrival at Haneda Airport, the passenger was handed over to local police. There were no reported injuries among the passengers and the flight was rescheduled for departure on January 17.”
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An All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane at Tokyo International Airport.
RICHARD A. BROOKS/AFP via Getty Images
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The incident follows a series of other flight incidents in Japan this month. On Tuesday, two passenger planes collided on a runway in Hokkaido, Japan, when Korean Air Flight 766 skidded on a snowy tarmac and crashed into a parked Cathay Pacific plane at New Chitose Airport. There were no injuries after the collision, according to Korean Air in a statement.
There were 276 passengers and 13 crew members on the Korean Air plane at the time, reports ABC News. There were no passengers on the Cathay Pacific plane at the time of the crash.
“The airline is cooperating with all relevant authorities,” Korean Air said on Instagram, adding that it “will do its best to serve passengers safely by quickly dispatching backlogged passengers.”
On January 2, Japan Airlines Flight 516 collided with a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft and caught fire, CNN and BBC reported. All 379 passengers and crew members were evacuated at the time of the incident, several media reported. However, five of the six people on board the coast guard plane died in the crash, according to public broadcaster NHK, as reported by Reuters.
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