Plane forced to turn back after cockpit window cracks in mid-air
A plane had to turn back to its departure airport mid-flight after a crack opened up in the window of the cockpit.
All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight NH1182 was en-route from Sapporo, on Japan’s Hokkaido island, to Toyama, on the main island of Honshu.
The crack was noticed in the fourth, outermost layer of the cockpit window as the flight was passing over Hakodate, a city in Hokkaido.
The Boeing 737 plane landed at Saporro’s Chitose Airport at approximately 12am local time, with no injuries or other issues reported among the crew or passengers.
A spokesperson for ANA said: ‘The crack was not something that affected the flight’s control or pressurisation.’
Alternative flights are understood to have been arranged for the 59 passengers on board.
It comes after an Alaska Airlines flight was forced to make an emergency landing after a window and part of the plane’s fuselage were blown out more than 16,000ft in the air.
Dramatic footage of the interior of the plane circulated on TikTok showed the hole in the side of the aircraft, as well as passengers wearing oxygen masks.
No injuries were reported as the result of this earlier incident either, and the plane landed safely with 174 passengers and six crew members.
However, the crack in the ANA flight’s window makes it the second in-flight incident involving a Boeing 737 in just two weeks.
The Alaska Airlines incident has seen all 737 Max 9 models of the aircraft grounded by the FAA, the US aviation authority.
Flights using the model will remain suspended while the authority conducts safety checks.
The 737 Max is no stranger to controversy, with all of these jets grounded after two crashes in 2018 and 2019 claimed the lives of more than 300 people.
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