300 airline passengers land exactly where they took off after seven-hour nightmare journey in Japan

About 300 passengers eventually landed back where they started after a seven-hour nightmare in Japan.

Japan Airlines flight JL331 was scheduled to depart from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport for a two-hour domestic flight to Fukuoka.

But after take-off the plane had to return to Tokyo, having almost reached its final destination after a seven-hour return journey – only to be told to turn back.

Flight JL331 was scheduled to depart Haneda at 18:30 on Sunday and land in Fukuoka at 20:30.

A last-minute plane change delayed takeoff by 90 minutes, NDTV reported.

But after take-off the plane had to return to Tokyo after a seven-hour round trip (file photo)

Fukuoka has a 10pm cutoff for commercial plane landings – and once airborne, the flight should land within four minutes.

But other delays and strong winds prevented JL331 from landing, as officials did not consider the reason for the delay – the aircraft change – to be “unavoidable”.

There was nothing to do but return to Tokyo.

But the plane was diverted again to Kansai International Airport near Osaka, where it landed at 11.59pm.

Kansai also had problems. A lack of staff and available transport meant that another flight was put together for the exhausted passengers.

Japan Airlines Flight JL331 was scheduled to depart from Tokyo Haneda Airport (left) to Fukuoka (right) on a two-hour domestic flight.

The plane took off again from Kansai at 1:56 a.m. and landed back in Japan’s capital at 2:44 a.m. on Monday after a seven-hour nightmare journey.

Japan Airlines has previously made headlines for its in-flight diet options.

Kris Chari, a vegan, was stunned after being served a single banana for breakfast. They were served “barely seasoned spaghetti” for lunch.

MailOnline has reached out to Japan Airlines for comment.