Flight Turns Around After 'Drunk Passenger' Bites Plane Crew

A plane bound for the U.S. was forced to turn around after a passenger said to be drunk allegedly bit a member of the flight crew.

The assailant, a 55-year-old man, is an American national and was "heavily drunk" on the flight according to an All Nippon Airways (ANA) spokesman, the South China Morning Post said.

A total of 159 passengers were onboard at the time and were forced to return to Haneda airport in Tokyo. The flight was bound for Seattle.

The man "doesn't recall at all" the alleged incidents on the flight after taking a sleeping pill, according to a report by Japanese broadcaster TBS.

The crew member was slightly injured after their arm was bitten.

Newsweek has approached ANA for comment.

The incident comes just days after an ANA flight in Japan returned to an airport because of a crack reported in the cockpit window.

Nobody onboard flight NH1182 was injured. The fissure was discovered on the outer layer of the window. "The crack was not something that affected the flight's control or pressurization," a spokesperson said.

A total of 59 passengers and six crew were on the flight at the time the issue with the Boeing 737 was reported. The flight was bound for the Japanese city of Toyama, but was forced to return to Sapporo's New Chitose airport.

A report published last year showed that analysis by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) that bad behavior on flights had increased by 47 percent in the year 2021 to 2022.

Incidents involving "unruly behavior" occurred on around one in every 835 flights in 2021. This then rose to one in every 568 flights a year later. What is considered to be unruly behavior includes "non-compliance, verbal abuse and intoxication," as well as physical abuse, but the IATA says the latter is "very rare."

The IATA report, published in June 2023, said there was an "alarming" spike of incidents listed specifically as physical abuse in 2022 compared to the year before, rising by 61%. The IATA said there was an incident of physical abuse on one in every 17,200 flights.

Conrad Clifford, IATA's then deputy director general, said the trend was "worrying."

He added: "Passengers and crew are entitled to a safe and hassle-free experience onboard. For that, passengers must comply with crew instructions.

"While our professional crews are well trained to manage unruly passenger scenarios, it is unacceptable that rules in place for everyone's safety are disobeyed by a small but persistent minority of passengers."

It is not immediately clear how the global COVID-19 pandemic impacted the data.

This is a breaking story and will be updated when more information is available.

Update 1/17/2024 8:30 a.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.