An All Nippon Airways plane was taken out of service after a passenger complained that he had been bitten by a centipede on the flight, airline officials said.
The passenger informed a crew member on ANA Flight 628 that he had been bitten as the plane was flying between Kagoshima and Tokyo Wednesday, the Mainichi Shimbun reported Thursday.
After the plane landed at Tokyo's Haneda Airport, a search for the centipede was conducted unsuccessfully, so ANA officials decided to take the plane out of service.
The same plane had been scheduled to fly to Oita immediately afterwards, but another plane left for Nagasaki 58 minutes behind schedule.
The man's finger turned blue, and he received first-aid treatment on the flight. There were over 200 passengers on the plane, but no other injuries were reported.
A similar incident involving a centipede occurred on an ANA flight about five months earlier. When workers fumigated the plane, they found the insect.
"We didn't find the centipede this time, but we decided not to use the plane out of consideration for the safety of passengers," an ANA representative said.
© Copyright 2005 by United Press International
