Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters
A Seattle-bound All Nippon Airways flight was forced to return to Tokyo on Tuesday after an intoxicated American passenger bit a flight attendant during the journey, the airline said.
The unnamed 55-year-old man was “heavily drunk” when he bit the arm of the female crew member, slightly injuring her, an ANA spokesperson told AFP. Other members of the flight crew restrained the man as the plane carrying 159 passengers circled back over the Pacific Ocean toward Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, where he was handed over to police, according to Japan’s Kyodo News agency.
After being detained on suspicion of causing injury to the attendant, the man reportedly told authorities he’d taken a sleeping pill and had no recollection of what happened.