Panel falls from plane in Japan, second case in a week

TOKYO, Japan – A panel weighing 3 kilograms fell from a plane onto a factory near Tokyo, Japanese officials said Thursday, September 28, the country’s second case in a week after a similar part landed on a car.

No injuries were reported after the panel was discovered inside the factory near Narita Airport in the suburbs of the Japanese capital, a spokesman for All Nippon Airways told Agence France-Presse.

“After consulting with a panel manufacturer, we identified that the panel was one that fell from our plane,” a Boeing 767 flying from the southeastern Chinese city of Amoi, said the spokesman, Hiroyuki Miyagawa.

The panel was used as a cover for the emergency slide and ANA said a faulty bottle containing nitrogen gas was to blame.

The nitrogen is used to blow the panel off the plane, allowing the slide to deploy in an emergency but the bottle leaked, the spokesman said, adding it had since been replaced and apologizing.

Last weekend, a panel fell from a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines Boeing 777 shortly after take-off from a Japanese airport, smashing the window of a car being driven below. – Rappler.com