A flight in Japan was forced to return to Tokyo after an allegedly drunk passenger bit a crew member.
The US-bound flight, which reportedly had 159 passengers on board, was over the Pacific Ocean when the incident happened, forcing pilots to turn back to Haneda Airport.
The passenger, said to be a 55-year-old American, allegedly bit a flight attendant’s arm while "heavily drunk", mildly injuring her, an airline spokesperson told the AFP news agency.
According to local media, the man was handed over to police, where he told investigators that he had taken a sleeping pill and didn’t remember what had happened at all.
It is the latest in a series of high-profile incidents to make headlines in Japanese aviation in recent days.
The most serious was a dramatic collision at Haneda between a Japan Airlines aircraft and a smaller coast guard plane on January 2.
All 379 people on board the JAL Airbus escaped with moments to spare before the aircraft was engulfed in flames.
Five of the six people on the smaller aircraft, which was helping in a relief operation after a major earthquake in central Japan, died.
In a separate incident on Saturday, a domestic ANA flight in Japan was also forced to turn back after a crack was discovered in the cockpit’s window.
The crack appeared in the outermost layer of the window, and there were no injuries to anyone on board.
“The crack was not something that affected the flight's control or pressurisation," an ANA spokesperson said.
In a third incident, the wing tip of a Korean Air airliner hit an empty Cathay Pacific plane while taxiing at an airport in Hokkaido.
Korean Air said the accident, which caused no injuries, occurred after "the third-party ground handler vehicle slipped due to heavy snow."
