KUALA LUMPUR – A Boeing airliner in Japan’s All Nippon Airways (ANA) fleet was forced to return to its departure airport after a crack developed on the plane’s cockpit window during its flight.
According to the BBC, the crack emerged at the outermost of the four layers of window glass surrounding the cockpit.
Despite the crack, pilots managed to land the aircraft safely, with no injuries reported to anyone on board.
It is learnt that ANA Flight NH1182 was scheduled to fly from Sapporo in Hokkaido to Toyama, on Japan’s main island, Honshu.
The aircraft, a Boeing 737, landed back at Sapporo’s New Chitose airport at around 11.10am (Malaysian time), yesterday.
According to ANA’s spokesperson, the crack was discovered as the flight passed over Hakodate.
“The crack was not something that affected the flight’s control or pressurisation,” the spokesperson was quoted as saying.
The flight had 59 passengers and six crew members on board during the incident, following which alternative flights were arranged for the passengers.
The incident was the second involving a Boeing 737 globally in the past two weeks. The plane however was an older model and not one of Boeing’s newer 737 MAX 9 planes, which has been recently grounded by US aviation authorities.
This is after an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft, suffered a blowout which resulted in the cabin panel detaching off the new plane while in flight, leaving a hole on in the side of its fuselage.
The incident forced the aircraft, which was transporting 177 passengers and crew, to make an emergency landing in Oregon, US.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the US authority on aviation matters extended the grounding of the controversial Boeing aircraft on Friday indefinitely for further safety checks while promising to tighten its oversight of Boeing itself.
The FAA had reportedly stated the 171 planes with a similar configuration and model in comparison to the one in the incident had to stay grounded “for the safety of American travellers”. – January 14, 2024