A drunk US man allegedly bit the arm of a flight attendant on a passenger jet headed to Seattle from Tokyo on Tuesday night, forcing the plane’s return to the Japanese capital, according to local reports. The attack happened over the Pacific Ocean on All Nippon Airways flight 118, Japan’s Kyodo News reported. Crew members restrained a 55-year-old American man accused of biting an attendant on the arm, and police arrested him after the Seattle-bound plane was brought back to Tokyo’s Haneda airport. Authorities did not immediately identify the man. But Kyodo News reported that he denied hurting anyone while also saying he did not remember what had happened because he had taken a sleeping pill. In a statement circulated to various media outlets, All Nippon Airways said the arrested American was “intoxicated” as well as “acting in an unsafe manner to the flight crew and passengers”. The airline said no passengers were injured, and their flight was scheduled to depart again from Haneda airport later on Wednesday. “The safety and security of our passengers and employees are our top priority, and we will take all necessary actions to ensure it,” the airline’s statement added. Biting flight crew members or passengers on a commercial airline’s plane can draw hefty legal penalties. In 2022, the US’s Federal Aviation Administration handed down its two largest-ever fines against a pair of passengers for unruly behavior in the skies on separate flights in July of the previous year. One of the fines in question was for $81,950 and was handed to a passenger who pushed an American Airlines flight attendant while headed to Charlotte from Dallas-Fort Worth; tried to open the cabin door; and then spit at, headbutted and attempted to kick others who approached to restrain her, the FAA said. The FAA said the other of the two fines was for $77,272, given to a Delta Air Lines passenger who tried to kiss and hug a person next to her – and ultimately bit another traveler before being restrained on a trip from Las Vegas to Atlanta. Tuesday’s biting episode added to a turbulent pair of weeks for Japanese aviation. On 2 January, a Japan Airlines passenger jet became engulfed in flames after colliding with a coastguard plane at Haneda airport. Five of the six people on the coastguard plane were killed. All 379 passengers and crew on the Japan Airlines plane escaped alive. Then, on Sunday, an All Nippon Airways jet’s wingtip struck a Delta plane at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport. The FAA said it was investigating, though no injuries were reported, as the Chicago Sun-Times reported. A similar crash occurred Tuesday on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, when a Korean Air jet’s wing tip struck an empty Cathay Pacific plane while taxiing at a local airport. No injuries were reported in that case either, according to the Associated Press.