Japan Plane Turns Back After Man Bites Cabin Attendant

Published

2 years ago

January 17, 2024

A US-bound All Nippon Airways plane had to return to Tokyo after an intoxicated passenger bit a cabin attendant mid-flight, the Japanese carrier said Wednesday.

The passenger, reportedly a 55-year-old man believed to be American, sunk his teeth into the crew member’s arm while “heavily drunk”, leaving her mildly injured, an ANA spokesman told AFP.

The incident prompted the pilots of the plane with 159 passengers on board to turn back over the Pacific to Haneda airport, where the man was handed over to police, according to ANA.

Japanese broadcaster TBS quoted the passenger as telling investigators that he “doesn’t recall at all” his behaviour.

The incident left some social media users likening it in mock horror to the “beginning of a zombie movie.”

Others lamented the litany of Japanese aviation woes so far this year, with four other incidents making headlines in just over two weeks.

The most serious was a near-catastrophic 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 just 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.

Then on Tuesday, the wing tip of a Korean Air airliner struck an empty Cathay Pacific plane while taxiing at an airport in the northern island of Hokkaido.

Korean Air said the accident, which caused no injuries, happened after “the third-party ground handler vehicle slipped due to heavy snow.”

A similar mishap took place on Sunday when an ANA aircraft came into “contact” with a Delta Air Lines plane at a Chicago airport, the Japanese airline told AFP, also causing no injuries.

Another ANA flight reportedly had to turn back on Saturday after a crack was discovered on the cockpit window of the Boeing 737-800.

“Wing strike” incidents “do happen” because many airports are handling bigger planes than they were built for, Doug Drury, aviation expert at Central Queensland University, told AFP.

“The cracked window incident may have been caused by a faulty window heat system as the temperatures are quite extreme at altitude,” he added.

“This is not uncommon and has happened to me during my career.”

AFP

Welcome Home, Israel Confirms Return Of 20 Hostages From Gaza

Published

4 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Israel said that the last 20 living hostages released by Hamas on Monday had arrived in the country.

“Welcome home,” the foreign ministry wrote in a series of posts on X, hailing the return of Matan Angrest, Gali Berman, Ziv Berman, Elkana Bohbot, Rom Braslavski, Nimrod Cohen, David Cunio, Ariel Cunio, Evyatar David, Guy Gilboa Dalal, Maxim Herkin, Eitan Horn, Segev Kalfon, Bar Kuperstein, Omri Miran, Eitan Mor, Yosef Haim Ohana, Alon Ohel, Avinatan Or and Matan Zangauker.

AFP

Headline

20 Members Of Gang Blacklisted By US Escape Guatemala Prison

Published

6 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

Twenty members of a gang designated a “foreign terrorist organisation” by the United States have escaped from detention in Guatemala, a prison chief said Sunday.

The members of the Barrio 18 gang “evaded security controls” at the Fraijanes II facility, prison director Ludin Godinez said at a news conference.

He received “an intelligence report” on Friday warning about the “possible escape” from the prison, which is southeast of the capital, Guatemala City.

Godinez said they were investigating possible acts of corruption.

Washington last month blacklisted Barrio 18, an El Salvador-based gang which has a reputation for violence and extortion, as part of its crackdown on drug trafficking.

The US embassy in Guatemala condemned the prison escape as “utterly unacceptable.”

“The United States designated members of this heinous group as the terrorists they are and will hold accountable anyone who has provided, provides, or decides to provide material support to these fugitives or other gang members,” the embassy said on X.

It called on the Guatemalan government to “act immediately and vigorously to recapture these terrorists.”

According to Interior Minister Francisco Jimenez, there are about 12,000 gang members and collaborators in Guatemala, while another 3,000 are in prison.

The country’s homicide rate has increased from 16.1 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2024 to 17.65 this year, more than double the world average, according to the Centre for National Economic Research.

According to the Salvadoran government, the gangs Barrio 18 and Mara Salvatrucha, better known as MS-13, are responsible for the deaths of about 200,000 people over three decades.

The two gangs once controlled an estimated 80 percent of El Salvador, which had one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Headline

South Africa Bus Crash Kills 40 Including Malawi, Zimbabwe Nationals

Published

6 hours ago

October 13, 2025

Editor

At least 40 people, including nationals of Malawi and Zimbabwe, were killed when a passenger bus rolled down an embankment in South Africa, a provincial transport minister said Monday.

The bus travelling to Zimbabwe crashed around 90 kilometres (55 miles) from the border on Sunday after the driver apparently lost control, Limpopo province transport minister Violet Mathye said.

“They are still working on the scene, but 40 bodies have already been confirmed to date,” Mathye told the Newzroom Afrika channel. The dead included a 10-month-old girl, she said.

Thirty-eight people were in hospital and rescuers were searching for other victims, she told eNCA media.

The bus was travelling from the southern city of Gqeberha, around 1,500 kilometres away, and its passengers included Malawians and Zimbabweans who were working in South Africa. The crash may have been caused by driver fatigue or a mechanical fault, the minister said.

South Africa has a sophisticated and busy road network with a high rate of road deaths, blamed mostly on speeding, reckless driving and unroadworthy vehicles.

AFP