A passenger suffered a ruptured eardrum during decompression on an All Nippon Airways flight carrying 170 people last week, the transport ministry said Tuesday.

ANA Flight NH561 bound for Kochi Airport took off from Tokyo's Haneda airport at around 8:20 a.m. Friday but returned to the airport 50 minutes later due to the incident, according to the ministry and All Nippon Airways Co.

A display showed that pressure in the passenger cabin dropped suddenly when the Boeing 737 was flying at an altitude of about 5,000 meters, they said.