TOKYO (AFP)--Tokyo's Narita airport briefly closed its main
runway Friday after a FedEx Corp. (FDX) cargo plane - the same
model as a jet that crashed there last month - made an emergency
landing, the airport said.
The McDonnell Douglas MD-11 plane had left for South Korea's
Incheon airport but returned to Narita after its pilot felt unusual
vibrations near the aircraft's front wheel, an airport official
said.
"The airport received communication from the pilot, who asked
for a checkup of the aircraft," said the official.
The emergency landing closed the main 4,000-meter Runway A for
only a few minutes, and the plane took off for Incheon a few hours
later, the official said. No one was injured.
Last month, a FedEx cargo plane en route from China crashed in
high winds and exploded in a ball of flames on touchdown at Narita,
killing both pilots.
It was the first-ever fatal accident at Japan's biggest
international airport, and the country's first since 1996, when
three people died in a Garuda Indonesia accident at Fukuoka
airport.