Japan plane goes on 7-hour flight to nowhere after being forced to make a U-turn minutes before landing

Japan Airlines Co. flight JL331 missed the 10pm cut-off for commercial planes landing at Fukuoka airport and was denied permission to land

It was redirected to another airport 450km away, but there weren’t enough buses or accommodation available so it had to return to the Japanese capital

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Japan Airlines Co. flight JL331 landed back in the Japanese capital almost seven hours after it took off. Photo: Kyodo

Published: 11:01am, 23 Feb 2023Updated: 7:41am, 28 Feb 2023

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 its starting point.

Japan Airlines Co. flight JL331, had been due to leave Tokyo’s Haneda Airport for the two-hour hop to Fukuoka at 6:30pm local time on Sunday.

However, take-off 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 10pm cut-off time for commercial planes – despite earlier expectations it would land with four minutes to spare, the airline said in a statement.

A picture of the diverted plane’s flight path back to Haneda taken by one of the passengers on board. Photo: Twitter/@pococha_upa

Strong winds at Haneda in the morning had led to delays in other flights bound for Fukuoka. While other late-running planes were allowed to land after the curfew, JL331 was denied permission.

Fukuoka Airport officials told the Asahi newspaper that they didn’t regard the flight’s delay as “unavoidable” due to factors such as bad weather or congestion that would have allowed for an exception to be made.

Thus began the long journey back to Tokyo. An initial plan to divert the flight to the nearby city of Kitakyushu was abandoned because no buses were available to handle the 335 passengers, Japan Airlines said.

Rather, pilots were redirected about 280 miles (450km) from their original destination to Kansai International Airport near Osaka, landing at 10:59pm.