On January 17, a spokesperson for All Nippon Airways (ANA) told AFP that a 55-year-old male passenger, believed to be an American, bit the flight attendant's arm while "iding into heavy alcohol", causing the flight attendant to suffer minor injuries.
The incident prompted the pilots of the 159,7 passenger plane to return from the Pacific Ocean to Haneda Airport in Tokyo and hand over the man to the police, according to ANA.
Japanese broadcaster TBS quoted passengers as saying to investigators that he "did not remember any" of his behavior.
The incident has made some social media users feel like a "msmsmsmsms". Others lamented Japan's aviation disasters this year - with four other incidents attracting attention in just over two weeks.
The most serious was the collision that led to a catastrophic fire at Haneda airport between a Japan Airlines plane and a Japanese Coast Guard plane on January 2.
All 379 people on the Japan Airlines Airbus were safely evacuated before the plane sank in the sea of fire.
Five of the six people on a Japanese Coast Guard plane participating in relief efforts after a major earthquake in central Japan have died.
Then, on January 16, a Korean Air plane preparing to take off crashed into a Cathay Pacific plane at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, northern Japan.
Korean Air said the accident did not cause any injuries. There were no passengers on the Cathay Pacific at the time of the collision.
A similar accident occurred on January 13 when an ANA plane "coordinated" with a Delta Air Lines plane at Chicago airport (USA), and caused no injuries.
Another ANA flight had to return to the airport to depart on January 13 after discovering a crack in the cockpit window of the Boeing 737-800. No injuries were reported to the 59 passengers and 6 crew members.
Doug Drury, an aviation expert at the University of Central Australia, told AFP that the collisions occurred because many airports were receiving larger aircraft than the airport's capacity allowed.
He added that the cracked windows could be due to a broken window heating system because the temperatures at the elevation were quite harsh.
"This is not uncommon and has happened to me in my career," Doug Drury said.
