2hr flight turns into 16hr journey after missing landing time by 10 mins

It was meant to be a two-hour domestic flight for 335 passengers on a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane.

But their journey from Tokyo's Haneda International Airport became a 16-hour ordeal after the plane was turned away by Fukuoka International Airport for missing its landing time by 10 minutes.

Tokyo and Fukuoka are located on the opposite sides of the country and about 885km apart.

On February 19, Flight JL 331 was scheduled to leave at 6.30pm local time from Tokyo and land at its destination at 8.30pm on the same day. The plane took off at 8.18pm, according to Flightradar24.

However, some news outlets such as the BBC and Bloomberg reported that the aircraft was delayed for 90 minutes due to a plane switch.

Local paper Asahi Shimbun said JAL is investigating why the take-off was delayed.

The plane was minutes away from landing at Fukuoka airport when it was turned away for missing the airport's 10pm cut-off time.

Planes are prohibited from landing after 10pm due to noise concerns for residents living in the area, reported Asahi Shimbun, which quoted Fukuoka airport officials.

On that morning, strong winds at Haneda airport resulted in other flights being delayed. Flight data also showed that other flights were allowed to land past the cut-off time, said the BBC.

JL 331 was the only flight that was rejected at Fukuoka, Bloomberg reported.

Planes might be allowed to land after 10pm when delay was unavoidable, such as bad weather or congestion on runways, said the officials. However, they did not regard JL 331's flight delay as "unavoidable", reported Ashai Shimbun.

The BBC reported that the plane had to circle in the air until it found an airport to allow it to land.

The flight initially attempted to land at an airport in Kitakyushu, a city close to Fukuoka, but was not allowed to do so as there were no buses to ferry the passengers to a hotel.

The plane then had to fly back to Haneda airport.

At around 11pm that day, the plane made a stop at Kansai International Airport to refuel for the en route journey, according to Asahi Shimbun. After undergoing maintenance work, the plane left the airport at around 1.45am on Feb 20.

Passengers were unable to disembark from the plane as hotels could not be arranged for them, said the BBC.

The plane eventually landed at Haneda airport at 2.50am, with the passengers later staying at a hotel arranged by the airline.

They later departed for Fukuoka from Tokyo at 10.20am on Feb 20.

South China Morning Post reported that the airline said it paid for the passengers' hotel accommodation and taxi fares.

On Twitter, a passenger said he was given a boarding pass replacement, as well as 20,000 yen (S$198) and water during the hotel stay.

"I am glad it was not a plane crash," said the passenger in Japanese.

In a statement, the airline told British media outlet The Independent: "We apologise for the inconvenience and burden caused by not being able to take passengers to Fukuoka as scheduled and the long flight time."