Bear on runway forces airport in Japan to cancel flights: “We’re in a stalemate”

A bear roaming the runway forced a Japanese airport to cancel flights on Thursday and declare itself off-limits to passengers for the day.

The black bear appeared at northern Japan’s Yamagata Airport, immediately prompting the closure of its runway. The bear, which was about four feet tall, was first spotted near the runway at around 7 a.m. on Thursday, the Yomiuri Shimbun reported.

This first sighting resulted in a delay of up to an hour of four flights, before the animal reemerged around noon, this time “running” on the runway.    

Airport staff used a car to chase it away and closed the runway again, with the bear still at large somewhere in the facility.  

“Given the situation there is no way we can host plane arrivals now,” Yamagata Airport official Akira Nagai told AFP Thursday evening, adding the second closure led to 12 flight cancellations.

With hunters brought in to set up a trap and police officers surrounding the airport to prevent the bear from escaping, “we’re in a stalemate now,” Nagai said.

The facility plans to keep the runway closed till around 8:00 pm, the official said.

Human encounters with bears have reached record levels in Japan, with 219 people attacked and six deaths in the 12 months to April 2024.

Last month, a bear sighting brought a premature end to a golf tournament in central Japan, with organizers citing safety precautions.

Climate change affecting food sources and hibernation times is a key factor, but as Japan’s aging population shrinks, humans are leaving rural areas, and that is also leaving room for bears to move in.

“Then that area recovered to the forest, so bears have a chance to expand their range,” biologist Koji Yamazaki, from Tokyo University of Agriculture, told CBS News‘ Elizabeth Palmer in 2023.

Japan is one of the only places on the planet where a large mammal species has been reclaiming habitat — which is good news for the bears, but if, as biologists suspect, the bear population is growing, the country will have to figure out new ways to protect people, and vital infrastructure like airports, from the animals.

Japan’s government in February approved a bill allowing hunters to shoot bears in populated areas.

In December, a bear that rampaged through a Japanese supermarket for two days was lured out with food coated in honey. Police said the animal was trapped and later killed.