Posted on 03/26/2011 6:40:03 PM PDT by FReepaholic
If someone did fabricate the story, they at least researched it enough to get the locations correct. And yes, either the former USAF-now-JASDF Base at Chitose or the Commercial Airport at Sapporo would be perfectly fine for landing a 767. BTW, when the Russian pilot, Lt. Belenko wanted to defect to the “west” and flew a new MIG-25 to Japan, he landed at Hakodate Airport, which is also on Hokkaido, but since he was unable to stop in time and ran it off the end of the runway, perhaps that airport would not handle a 767, either. Ver-r-r-r-ry Inter-r-r-r-r-resting!
I was on a Thai Airways flight scheduled to land at Narita at 16:00 the day of the quake. About 15:00 we were told that we were being diverted to Nagoya; then 15 minutes or so later - after flying in a circle, we were told we were being diverted to Haneda. We landed at Haneda at 16:00, but had to wait on the plane for 2 hours. Waiting in the airplane on the tarmac, we saw no other planes land or take off. The reason for the delay was that there were no (or not enough) immigration officers on duty at that time. People waited up to 9 hours for a taxi.
It had to be a nightmare for incoming aircraft pilots.
Why land in Japan at all? Go on to the mainland.
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