Hundreds of flights grounded, airport control tower abandoned, as typhoon Mindulle bears down on Tokyo
Japan’s weather agency warned of mudslides and floods as well as lightning and gusty winds
Heavy rain drenched the Japanese capital on Monday as Typhoon Mindulle forced air traffic controllers to temporarily abandon the control tower at Narita International Airport and cancel hundreds of flights.
Narita was closed at 2:20 p.m. after the controllers left the tower when wind speeds reached 126 kilometres per hour, said a Transport Ministry official at the airport who would give only his surname, Matsumoto. The airport reopened around an hour later.
It was the first time the tower had been closed because of a typhoon. It closed once before, during the magnitude-9.0 earthquake that triggered a massive tsunami in March 2011.
Typhoon Mindulle, which made landfall south of Tokyo early Monday afternoon, brought heavy rain and strong winds to Tokyo and surrounding areas.
Narita, which is located outside of Tokyo, said that 85 international and about 30 domestic flights had been cancelled. More than 400 domestic flights were cancelled at the city’s other major airport, Haneda.