A passenger on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight from Tokyo to Seattle was involved in an unusual accident on Tuesday. During ANA flight 118, which departed from Tokyo's Haneda airport at 9.47pm local time, the man – an American – allegedly bit a flight attendant, forcing the plane to return to Tokyo after just over an hour. travel time, according to Flightradar24, a flight tracking website.
The ANA spokesperson confirmed that the passenger was detained by police upon arrival in Tokyo, but the name was not disclosed. Fortunately, the flight attendant only suffered minor injuries, the spokesperson said.
This episode follows a series of similar in-flight incidents. In 2022, two passengers on separate flights of American Airlines and Delta Air Lines received record fines for attacking crew and other passengers, reaching $81,950 and $77,272 (75,450 and 71,143 euros), respectively. These are the two highest fines imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (the US equivalent of the Italian Civil Aviation Authority, ENAC) for inappropriate behavior on aircraft.
The passenger, according to Japanese broadcaster TBS, told investigators he “did not remember” his behavior at all. What happened has put the spotlight on all the recent problems faced by the Japanese airline sector: since the beginning of 2024, four more accidents, with worse consequences than today's, have made the headlines. The most serious was the collision in Haneda between a Japan Airlines plane and a smaller coast guard plane, which occurred on January 2: all 379 passengers on board the JAL Airbus escaped shortly before the plane was wrapped from the flames, while 5 of the 6 people on board the smaller plane, which was helping in a rescue operation after a strong earthquake in central Japan, died.
Returning to the various cases of bad and aggressive behavior by passengers, an American Airlines flight was diverted to Texas on January 3, where a passenger allegedly assaulted a flight attendant and at least one police officer.
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