Japan Airlines flight makes emergency landing in Tokyo after suspected bird strike
The plane returned to the airport about an hour after take-off and no injuries were reported
A Japan Airlines plane bound for New York has returned safely to a Tokyo airport after the pilot reported a bird strike to an engine during take-off.
Television footage showed red flame flickering from the left engine as the plane ascended from the runway.
JAL said the Boeing 777 carrying 233 passengers and 15 crew members requested an emergency landing minutes after take-off from Haneda International Airport on Tuesday.
The plane returned to the airport about an hour after take-off and no injuries were reported. JAL said it will inspect the engine
“It seems that a bird got sucked into the left engine when taking off,” a JAL spokesman said.
“The plane discarded fuel in the air” to reduce weight ahead of landing, he said.
A land ministry official said that a grass field next to one of the four runways briefly caught fire after the JAL jet departed but it was soon extinguished.
“We closed this runway as there may be some parts that dropped from the plane,” he said.
The Hong Kong-bound Airbus A330 took off from New Chitose at 5:07pm Monday with 235 passengers and crew members aboard, but it returned to the airport after its pilots declared an emergency about 30 minutes into the flight due to the decompression, according to Japan’s Transport Ministry.
Chitose Airport is the main gateway to the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Associated Press, Agence France-Presse
