Travel
Plane Forced to U-Turn Minutes Before Landing Sends Passengers Back Home
- JAL flight with 335 passengers turned back by Fukuoka airport
- Plane was then re-routed to Osaka before returning to Tokyo
A Japanese domestic flight turned into a seven-hour ordeal for more than 300 passengers after narrowly missing a curfew then being sent on a roundabout route back to is starting point.
Japan Airlines Co. flight JL331, had been due to leave Tokyo’s Haneda Airport for the two-hour hop to Fukuoka at 6:30 p.m. local time Sunday. However, takeoff was delayed for 90 minutes after a last-minute plane switch, and as the flight approached Fukuoka it became clear it would just miss the airport’s 10 p.m. cutoff time for commercial planes — despite earlier expectations it would land with 4 minutes to spare, the airline said in a statement.