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A male individual was apprehended at a Tokyo airport for reportedly biting a flight attendant on a plane headed to Seattle.
The flight of All Nippon Airways (ANA) had to go back to Haneda Airport in Tokyo during the early morning hours on Wednesday because of an incident that caused the captain to turn the plane around over the Pacific Ocean.
According to Flight Radar, an ANA Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner departed from the main flight hub at 9:47pm local time and then reversed course at 10:50pm, arriving back at the airport at 12:23am on Wednesday.
According to Kyodo News, a 55-year-old American man was subdued by crew members and later turned over to authorities for allegedly injuring a member of the airline staff.
Multiple regional news sources stated that the man refuted the accusation and claimed that he “cannot recall the events as he had ingested a sleeping aid.”
The Independent has reached out to Tokyo Police, ANA, and Haneda Airport for a statement.
In the past few weeks, there have been multiple incidents involving air travel in Japan, including two crashes that took place within a span of two weeks.
On January 2nd, a tragic incident occurred at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport where a collision between a Japan Airlines plane and a coastguard aircraft resulted in five fatalities when the former caught fire.
Video from inside the Japan Airlines A350 aircraft, with a total of 379 passengers including eight children, captured smoke coming out from under its wings as it made its landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport at approximately 5:45pm local time (8:45am GMT).
As the plane came to a stop, it was quickly surrounded by flames and rescue teams worked to evacuate all of the passengers. Tragically, five coastguard crew members lost their lives in the crash, while the pilot survived with serious injuries.
A traveler on the commercial flight explained the instance when their plane seemed to have crashed into another aircraft.
“I experienced a sudden jolt,” the unidentified passenger informed the Kyodo news agency, “as if we had collided with something and were quickly lifted upon landing. I observed sparks outside the window and the cabin became filled with gas and smoke.”
Only yesterday, there was an incident at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, Japan where a Korean Air Lines plane made contact with a Cathay Pacific Airways aircraft.
A representative from Korean Air stated that one of their aircrafts made contact with a Cathay aircraft while being pushed back at New Chitose (Sapporo) Airport by a ground handler vehicle from a third-party. The vehicle slipped due to the heavy snow. No injuries occurred and the airline is working with the appropriate authorities.
Source: independent.co.uk