Last night’s Japan Airlines flight from Tokyo to Fukuoka didn’t exactly go as planned.
In this post:
Japan Airlines A350 misses Fukuoka curfew, diverts to Osaka
This incident happened on Sunday, February 19, 2023, and involves Japan Airlines flight JL331, scheduled to operate from Tokyo (HND) to Fukuoka (FUK). The flight was operated by a two year old Airbus A350-900 with the registration code JA07XJ.
The 549-mile flight was scheduled to depart at 6:30PM and arrive at 8:30PM, and was blocked at two hours. Unfortunately that’s not how the flight ended up playing out, though.
Fukuoka Airport has a 10PM curfew. This is Japan, so you know that 10PM means 10PM. This curfew can only be broken with prior written approval, so that can’t be done last minute if you happen to approach just a few minutes late. Due to weather in the Tokyo area, the flight only ended up taking off a bit under two hours behind schedule, at 8:18PM.
The plane started its journey to Fukuoka, climbing up to 26,000 feet. Well, I guess the plane wasn’t going quite fast enough, because it missed the airport’s curfew by a matter of minutes. For example, below is the flight tracking for where the aircraft was at 9:58PM, just miles from Fukuoka Airport.
At that point the pilots were informed that they wouldn’t be allowed to land in Fukuoka, so plans were made to divert to another airport not subjected to a curfew. The decision was then made to fly to Kansai Osaka Airport (KIX), which is one of the carrier’s largest airports outside of the Tokyo area. The plane ended up landing there around 2hr40min after departing Tokyo, at 10:56PM local time.
Below is a Japanese news story about the incident.
Japan Airlines A350 returns to Tokyo in middle of night
At this point Japan Airlines had a plane load of passengers in Osaka, a city in which passengers neither originated in or intended to travel to. Furthermore, the crew was allegedly timing out, so couldn’t fly the passengers any further. Somehow Japan Airlines found a replacement crew at this hour of the night. The decision was made to return to Tokyo, where the passengers had originated, since that airport wouldn’t be subject to a curfew.
The flight ended up taking off at 1:55AM, and landing in Tokyo at 2:44AM. So over eight hours after their scheduled departure, passengers found themselves exactly where they started.
Passengers were then reportedly given hotel vouchers, compensation of 20,000 JPY (~$150), and were rebooked on other flights on Monday.
The wildest part of this story
Here’s what makes this even more interesting. Japan Airlines had two other flights scheduled to operate from Tokyo to Fukuoka after the above flight. While JL331 was scheduled to depart at 6:30PM, JL333 was scheduled to depart at 7:15PM and JL335 was scheduled to depart at 7:30PM.
Interestingly both of those flights managed to land in Fukuoka that night after the curfew. JL333 landed at 10:13PM, while JL335 landed at 10:16PM. Clearly Japan Airlines requested written permission in advance for those flights, realizing that they’d arrive after the curfew.
It would appear that for whatever reason, Japan Airlines’ operations department thought that JL331 could land in Fukuoka before the curfew, or else written permission would have been requested as well. The passengers on JL331 sure were unlucky…
Bottom line
A Japan Airlines Airbus A350 flying from Tokyo to Fukuoka had a departure delay due to bad weather, and ended up approaching Fukuoka just a few minutes after the curfew kicked in. The plane then diverted to Osaka, where the crew was changed, and then the flight flew back to Tokyo in the middle of the night.
While I can appreciate the logic of airports having curfews, surely there should be some leeway when it comes to situations like this, which are in no one’s best interest. Think of the amount of time and resources (including fuel!) that were wasted.
What do you make of this Japan Airlines diversion?
PS: Do I get any bonus points for my maturity, and not making a single pun about the airport code? 😉
Let’s weigh the situation—earplugs or major disaster? Hummm, I’m dumbfounded. Furthermore, if they’re late, in the name of God, they still have to land. Airlines gets charged a fee. This is so ludicrous, I don’t even believe this article is real. Who’s the guy that said “No”? Step down before lives are lost!
Well done on avoiding the airline code pun. When i flew Fukuoka to Miyazaki I couldn’t help sharing my booking confirmation with the email header : FUKKMI
What is fine if "declared an emergency" and landed anyway vs. fuel, time, 20,000 Yen per passenger, Hotel vouchers, last minute staff called in, etc. I am sure there are more and I know the Japanese hold themselves to a high degree in ethics, precision and honesty. That being said, you are flying an aircraft with however many souls on board (which is kind of irrelevant I suppose) and then...what? Does the airport just turns...
What is fine if "declared an emergency" and landed anyway vs. fuel, time, 20,000 Yen per passenger, Hotel vouchers, last minute staff called in, etc. I am sure there are more and I know the Japanese hold themselves to a high degree in ethics, precision and honesty. That being said, you are flying an aircraft with however many souls on board (which is kind of irrelevant I suppose) and then...what? Does the airport just turns the lights off and ATC just stops communication after 10 pm? There is a plethora of excuses I am sure they could have used to land. We don't have enough fuel, we think a passenger is having a stroke or a heart attack, we have a master caution alert and we don't know why so we are just going to land. That's what I would do anyway. I can't imagine the fury of some of those passengers...
So 2 questions:
1 - what is the financial impact if the crew says we are landing anyway vs. all the nonsense that happened afterwards?
2 - Why is there a curfew in the first place? Noise? Union rules? I don't get it. It is an aircraft filled with people and you (the airport and some DB at ATC says "Nope, turn around") have a few landing strips that clearly aren't being used...so piss off. We are landing, deal with it. Imagine if that was a USA charter. They would probably start a war over that.
Rules are rules. This is japan. Not US where they choose which law applies to which group of people. You don’t get a functioning society like Japan or Singapore by disobedience.
Japan is very strict about this kind of thing. When I was a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines I worked an A330 flight from Seoul to Narita that was delayed leaving Seoul. A typhoon was approaching Japan and by the time our flight was approaching the Japanese coast our captain was informed that all the airports within our fuel range were closed. We did not have sufficient fuel to return to Korea. To make what...
Japan is very strict about this kind of thing. When I was a flight attendant with Northwest Airlines I worked an A330 flight from Seoul to Narita that was delayed leaving Seoul. A typhoon was approaching Japan and by the time our flight was approaching the Japanese coast our captain was informed that all the airports within our fuel range were closed. We did not have sufficient fuel to return to Korea. To make what was a very long, involved and ultimately frightening story short(er), our captain had to declare an emergency, report the total number of souls onboard, and attempt to land at the closed Sendai Airport. The approach through the raging typhoon was terrifying. Passengers were screaming and it was so turbulent the Japanese flight attendant in the jumpseat opposite me was projectile vomiting. She could not hold a bag to her face because of the plane's violent pitching and rolling. When we hit the ground I wasn't sure if we'd landed or crashed; the impact was that shocking. As Sendai was not an international airport there were no immigration authorities and the crew and passengers were forced to remain on the aircraft. The only meal onboard had been a snack that had been served on the ground in Seoul due to the delayed departure. There was no food on the plane for the next 16 or so hours that we remained onboard. Eventually the passengers were deplaned and sent by train to Tokyo. Our crew had to remain at Sendai until mechanics arrived by road from Narita, to check the plane for damage caused by our hard landing. It was one of the most serious incidents in my 30 years as a flight attendant, and didn't need to be so dangerous, but the Japanese authorities would not budge on their rules.
Sounds like catastrophically bad planning from the captain to fly in to an area with an approaching typhoon with so little spare fuel. If Sendai was under the Typhoon effects, so would Narita have been.
I hope the fuel planning training was repeated a few times for the captain after this incident.
I agree that we never should have departed Seoul. We didn't take-off until several hours after we were scheduled to land at Narita. And we knew when we got on the airplane in Seoul that it was going to be cutting it close regarding the planned airport closures. Flying through the typhoon was the only time in my 30 years as a flight attendant that I sat strapped in my jumpseat and thought to myself...
I agree that we never should have departed Seoul. We didn't take-off until several hours after we were scheduled to land at Narita. And we knew when we got on the airplane in Seoul that it was going to be cutting it close regarding the planned airport closures. Flying through the typhoon was the only time in my 30 years as a flight attendant that I sat strapped in my jumpseat and thought to myself "I think we're all going to die tonight". Two nights later I dined with the co-pilot, who was on his first international trip, and he admitted to thinking we might all die as well. Not very reassuring.
Ugh... Curfews
A few years ago a Qantas 737 departed Auckland bound for Sydney. The flight was already an hour late, and ended-up diverting to Melbourne because of thunderstorms at Sydney and Canberra (the closest divert to SYD). They sat on the ground at MEL for close to two hours, departed for SYD, missed the 2300 curfew by a couple of minutes, were denied permission to land, and returned to Melbourne.
Kansai International is far from JAL's largest airport outside of the Tokyo area. Fukuoka might very well wear that crown. Kansai International gets a limited number of narrow body domestic flights, and a couple of long hauls. Even Osaka Itami would probably struggle to get the crown, since the Tokyo Osaka market is competing heavily with the high speed trains.
The main reason for selecting Kansai is that apart from Haneda, it is one...
Kansai International is far from JAL's largest airport outside of the Tokyo area. Fukuoka might very well wear that crown. Kansai International gets a limited number of narrow body domestic flights, and a couple of long hauls. Even Osaka Itami would probably struggle to get the crown, since the Tokyo Osaka market is competing heavily with the high speed trains.
The main reason for selecting Kansai is that apart from Haneda, it is one of Japan's very few 24 hour airports.
Actually, Kitakyushu airport, only 50 miles away from Fukuoka airport, is operating 24 hours and JAL serves that airport. Still, JAL chose Kansai for divert - maybe it would be easier for JAL to find replacement crews in Osaka.
I don't think Kitakyushu can take an A350. It is a rather small regional airport. There may be a point to being able to bring an A350 crew from the Itami base, if such one exists. As KIX normally never sees A350 operations from JAL
Except for the pilots, I think most crews are certified for many aircraft, they can likely get an international crew(787/777) to fly A350s domestically.
KIX is very thin on international flights for JAL at the moment, 3 times weekly to from LAX. So there is not a huge base to pull from, domestic JAL to and from KIX is only narrow bodies.
Starting from the summer schedule Bangkok flights are coming back, and in June LAX goes back to daily. But a good deal of that crew is from the Bangkok base.
I had a similar situation (ish) - we were flying from Toronto (YYZ) to St. John's, Newfoundland (YYT) and it is one of the most challenging flights to land on in a clear blue sky. We were in a holding pattern for at least 2 hours before turning back to Moncton, New Brunswick (YQM). It was relayed to the passengers that the size of the aircraft does not get along with the size of the...
I had a similar situation (ish) - we were flying from Toronto (YYZ) to St. John's, Newfoundland (YYT) and it is one of the most challenging flights to land on in a clear blue sky. We were in a holding pattern for at least 2 hours before turning back to Moncton, New Brunswick (YQM). It was relayed to the passengers that the size of the aircraft does not get along with the size of the airport. I remember looking out the window on approach and the pilots nailed it in my opinion. Just before hitting the runway, a swear there was no lift and again, looking out the window I could have gotten out and run faster. The aircraft stopped with plenty of room to go. However, the airport simply didn't have the necessary equipment or qualified technicians for this size of aircraft. Thankfully they had ladder steps and that is how we "de-planed". We had to wait for 3 smaller aircraft to arrive and we were assigned seats at random the next morning. Anyways, it happens and I get it. Just a crazy experience.
I believe it JL331 and not 311. Amazing the number of those flights they fly in a single day BTW.
Interesting to notice the plane flew at about 600 km/h at cruise altitude way lower than the types max speed and even lower than previous occurrences of same flight at about 700 kmh. Almost sounds like the pilots did not want to get to FUK to sleep.
If you look at the two subsequent flights JL333 and JL335, they flew about the same speed. 333 a bit slower and about 10,000 feet higher, 335 basically followed the same height and speed patterns of 331.
There was a pretty strong head wind, and winds at Haneda had been a problem all day. If you look the rotation the plane did prior to this one (JL317/317), the flight time to Fukuoka was 1:46, and...
If you look at the two subsequent flights JL333 and JL335, they flew about the same speed. 333 a bit slower and about 10,000 feet higher, 335 basically followed the same height and speed patterns of 331.
There was a pretty strong head wind, and winds at Haneda had been a problem all day. If you look the rotation the plane did prior to this one (JL317/317), the flight time to Fukuoka was 1:46, and the return to Tokyo 1:09.
I was on a flight out of Haneda Sunday morning, it had a 90 degree cross wind at 22 knots, and gusty conditions. That was an interesting take off.
There are 66 flights scheduled from Tokyo (HND) to Fukuoka (FUK) in the next 24 hours. Another dozen or so from Narita as well (on low cost airlines).
Haha. Brilliant.
It is all the more interesting because JL333 and JL335, both departed Haneda for Fukuoka almost same time as JL331 on that day, are actually allowed to land Fukuoka airport. Because JAL applied curfew waver for those flights and approved as it was obvious to pass the curfew before they part. It is not clear why they did not apply waver for JL331…
@ A Japanese -- Great find, thank you! Updated the post to reflect that.
It's Japan. There are no exceptions, for better or for worse.
And the rest of the world could only learn. Absolutely love Japan!
Let’s weigh the situation—earplugs or major disaster? Hummm, I’m dumbfounded. Furthermore, if they’re late, in the name of God, they still have to land. Airlines gets charged a fee. This is so ludicrous, I don’t even believe this article is real. Who’s the guy that said “No”? Step down before lives are lost!
Learn what? How to flex a little to prevent a potential disaster/loss of life?? You’re rigid thinking has no morals.
Ben, you‘re getting all the bonus points in the world, because you are our favorite blogger and we love you!
Yes definite bonus points. I’ve always wanted to fly from Pensacola to Fukuoka, with a layover in Charlotte.
PNS - CLT - FUK.
Good one :D Had to Google Pensacola airport code and Charlotte made sense only after I typed it above, lol.
I love the kind of Japanese punctuality, but in this case for a few minutes, to me it seems like a kind of stupidity.
This is complete ridiculousness.
If the pilot ran 999 cost index, this would have likely avoided. Dispatching should be aware of this beforehand.