Published: 12:14, October 20, 2024
Japan's Miyazaki Airport reopens after wartime bomb scare
By Xinhua

This recent handout photo released to AFP by the Miyazaki Airport Office of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on Oct 4, 2024 shows debris on the edge of the airport tarmac after an unexploded World War II US bomb blew up less than a minute after a passenger jet taxied past on October 2 at Miyazaki airport in southern Kyushu island. (HANDOUT / MIYAZAKI AIRPORT OFFICE OF THE MINISTRY OF LAND, INFRASTRUCTURE, TRANSPORT AND TOURISM VIA AFP)

TOKYO - Miyazaki Airport in southwestern Japan resumed operations on Sunday after determining that a magnetic reaction indicating the possible presence of an unexploded World War II bomb around a taxiway was caused by a large amount of iron sand, local media reported.

Japan Airlines canceled some of its flights Saturday night ahead of work to excavate the taxiway early Sunday, Kyodo News reported.

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The transport ministry's local office said Saturday it found what appears to be another unexploded World War II bomb after conducting a magnetic survey around the taxiway at the airport where a wartime bomb had exploded earlier this month.

The survey detected a 1.3-meter-wide object 1.6 meters below the ground, the office said.

On Oct 2, a 250-kilogram bomb dropped by the US military during the war exploded around the taxiway, leaving asphalt fragments scattered over a radius of some 200 meters, including the runway. No one was injured in the explosion.

READ MORE: Japan airport shut after likely WWII-era bomb explodes near runway

Formerly an air base of the Imperial Japanese Navy, Miyazaki Airport has seen two unexploded bombs unearthed in recent years, in 2011 and 2021.