An American passenger accused of biting a flight attendant’s arm in a drunken rage has been pictured being perp-walked out of Japan‘s Haneda Airport.
The spectacled suspect, named by Japanese outlet TBS News as 55-year-old Michael Travis Halyard, allegedly forced the flight to return to Tokyo on its route to Seattle on Tuesday night, and was promptly arrested after the ANA Airlines jet landed on the runway.
He reportedly told investigators that he took sleeping pills and ‘doesn’t recall at all’ his alleged antics on the flight, which left the hostess mildly injured.
The alleged biting incident is only the latest in a terrifying string of aviation disasters, which included two passenger jets colliding at a Japanese airport just a day before the biting incident.
The spectacled suspect, reportedly identified as 55-year-old Michael Travis Haliyad, forced the flight to return to Tokyo on its route to Seattle on Tuesday night after allegedly biting a stewardess
The passenger on the ANA plane said he had taken sleeping pills before allegedly sinking his teeth into the crew member’s arm while ‘heavily drunk’, leaving her mildly injured (File Photo)
The incident prompted 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 (File Photo)
The passenger’s alleged drunken behavior came while he was ‘heavily drunk’, prompting the aircraft with 159-passengers to turn around over the Pacific Ocean.
ANA told MailOnline: ‘On January 16, NH118 departing from Tokyo Haneda to Seattle returned during the flight due to an intoxicated passenger who was acting in an unsafe manner to the flight crew and passengers.
‘Upon arrival at Haneda Airport, the passenger was turned over to the local police. There were no reported injuries among the passengers and the flight has been rescheduled to depart on January 17.’
The airline added: ‘The safety and security of our passengers and employees are ANA’s top priority and we will take all necessary actions to ensure it.’
The bizarre incident left some social media users likening it in mock horror to the ‘beginning of a zombie movie’.
It comes after several other aviation failures and near-disasters have rocked the industry in recent times, with two passenger jets colliding at New Chitose Airport on Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido just hours before.
A Korean Airlines jet clipped a parked Cathawy Pacific Airways aircraft just as the Korean plane was preparing to take off.
There were 289 passengers on board the Korean Air plane during the incident, although thankfully no injuries were reported.
A more serious incident occurred at Haneda Airport two weeks prior, when a near-catastrophic collision occurred 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.
Just two weeks ago, a more serious incident unfolded at Haneda Airport when a Japan Airlines jet collided with a smaller coast guard plane. All 379 passengers and crew aboard the commercial flight were successfully evacuated moments before the jet was ravaged by flames
Chilling pictures of the A350 jet in the daylight show nothing but the wings and piles of ash remaining
It also comes as Boeing’s 737 MAX 9 aircraft, a workhorse for the aviation industry, has come under scrutiny in recent months.
Most notably, the plug door of new Alaska Airlines jet blew out at 16,000 feet on January 5 after being in service for only eight weeks.
Pilots flew the jet back to Portland, with only minor injuries among passengers.
A terrified passenger on board the near-catastrophic flight revealed the moment she texted her family ‘I don’t want to die’ after a door plug on the jet blew out.
Emma Vu took to TikTok after surviving the horror Alaska Airlines flight 1282.
‘In the moment I was so scared,’ Vu said, as she showed her panic-stricken texts to her family reading: ‘The masks r down; I am so scared right now; Please pray for me; Please I don’t want to die.’
In an interview with 7News Australia, she added: ‘I was more concerned with the plane dropping… I looked outside and it was going pretty smoothly. I think everyone freaking out inside made me freak out.’
Shocking footage from inside the plane saw fliers sat in eerie silence shortly after the door plug exploded, as they looked out of a gaping hole in the fuselage with the twinkling lights of Portland below.
Vu said she was asleep when the devastating safety failure erupted out of the blue and she ‘felt the entire plane drop’.
A photo shows the blown out door plug. It is offered as a door on the aircraft. Alaska chose not to take this option – although the frame of the prospective door was entirely ripped out by the fuselage failure
Passenger Emma Vu said she ‘felt the entire plane drop’ around 20 minutes into the horror Alaska Airlines flight 1282, which was bound from Portland to California before a door plug blasted into the sky at 16,000 feet
Alaska flight 1282 left Portland just after 5pm local time last Friday when a door plug blew out at 16,000 feet
‘The masks dropped, and people are screaming,’ she continued, next to a tearful selfie she took in the moment that she feared could be her last.
She said: ‘I am so grateful for the ladies sat next to me… They were so sweet at calming me down, and the flight attendants were giving oxygen tanks to those who needed it more.
‘But I was freaking out because my bag wouldn’t inflate – and that’s literally what they tell you in the safety thing, like don’t worry you’re still getting air flow… When you’re in fight or flight you’re not thinking about that.
‘It was just so scary, no one knew what was happening. The pilot came on to tell everyone to put your mask on before you help others – literally word for word what they tell you in the safety training.’