Runaway Dog Causes Delay at Okinawa’s Naha Airport

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:47 JST, January 11, 2025

A dog that had been left in the care of an airline company at Naha Airport in Okinawa Prefecture escaped on Friday, resulting in one of the runways being closed for about 10 minutes.

According to the Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry’s regional office at the airport, the problem caused seven flights to be delayed up to 13 minutes.

According to the office, a medium-sized dog escaped from its cage and started ran around the runway when it was being loaded onto an All Nippon Airways flight to Haneda Airport. Airport and airline staff chased the dog, which was caught with the help of the owner about 30 minutes later in an area of greenery next to the runway.