An airport in southwest Japan has resumed most of its operations, a day after an explosion left a hole in a taxiway.
An unexploded wartime bomb suddenly exploded under a taxiway at Miyazaki Airport on Wednesday morning. The explosion created a hole approximately one meter deep. Pieces of pavement and other debris were thrown approximately 200 meters.
Four planes were reportedly using the taxiway earlier in the day, before the explosion. One of them, a Japan Airlines flight with 93 people on board, had passed the site a few minutes earlier.
Miyazaki Airport was an Imperial Japanese Navy airbase during World War II.
The bomb is estimated to have weighed around 250 kilograms. This type of bomb is believed to have been dropped by American forces during the war.
The airport runway was closed after the explosion.
A specialized unit of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces removed the debris, confirmed the area was safe and sealed the hole.
The runway was reopened at 7:30 p.m., but more than 80 flights were canceled. On Thursday, schedule changes had to be made due to canceled flights.
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