An All Nippon Airways plane apparently entered the wrong taxiway for departure at Narita International Airport here Thursday evening, ending up face to face with a JALways plane that had just landed, airport officials said.
The departure of ANA flight 2179, bound for Osaka, was delayed by an hour as it had to be towed from Taxiway A after coming to a standstill facing JALways Flight 948, which had arrived from Saipan, around 6 p.m., the officials said Friday. No other flights were affected.
Both planes were Boeing 747s and the taxiway was too narrow for them to pass.
There are three taxiways at the scene and the ANA pilot is believed to have taken the wrong one.
A similar incident in mid-June shut down one of the two runways for 50 minutes.