Flight 5 Planes Delayed 15 Minutes Because of a Tortoise

TOKYO – Five aircraft flight schedules at Narita Airport, Japan , was delayed 15 minutes last Friday. The reason is the appearance of a turtle on one of the airport runways.

Because of the animal, one of the airport’s runways was closed for 12 minutes.

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Quotes The Mainichi, Monday (27/9/2021), the turtle was initially spotted by a pilot who then alerted aircraft control officers about the animal’s whereabouts.

The report said five flights were delayed by about 15 minutes due to the presence of turtles on the 4,000-meter runway last week.

The runway was ordered closed by Narita International Airport Corp. which conducted an inspection and moved the turtles to a safe place.

Airport administrators said the tortoise weighed 2.1 kilograms and was about 30 centimeters long.

The animal was rescued by one of the workers from the airport company using a net and is believed to have come from an airport retention pond about 100 meters away.

While there are regular cases of cats, raccoons, dogs and other animals entering the runway, turtle appearances are extremely rare.