Kansai Airport Closed Due to Super Typhoon

 Sankei Shimbun

Typhoon Hit Kansai Airport Suspends Operations; Connecting Bridge Collided by a Tanker

4 September 2018

Western Japan was hit by a strong typhoon on Tuesday and Kansai International Airport reported a flooding at its passenger terminal, apron and a runway. The airport built on reclaimed island was hit by high wave and heavy rain as the typhoon, one of the largest scale in recent years, passed the Osaka Bay area in daytime Tuesday. Water as deep as tens of centimeters covered the airport's critical area and the Airport operations stopped since afternoon Tuesday and the administration admitted it would be rather hard to resume all operations on September 5.

To worsen the situations, a tanker hit the connecting bridge to the airport in late afternoon on Tuesday, making the airport isolated from main land.

SS Houun  Maru, 2,590 tons, hit the bridge on 1:32 pm local time as it lost its control by high waves. There was no injury to its crew of 11. The tanker had been anchored nearby the airport after unloading jet fuel at receiving pier of the airport.

Imagery right after the collision shows motor road section of the bridge was damaged. There is also a report a girder of the bridge was hit as well.

Since Kansai Airport needs this bridge, both motorways and railroad, for access from and to the mainland, this accident may further delay resumption of normal operations at least until Japanese authorities finish a field investigation. There is fast boat connection between the Airport and Kobe that has been suspended its service due to rough seas on Tuesday.

Double-punched Kansai Airport needs to keep everything under control as soon as possible to resume its everyday operations. ■

UPDATE:　The damaged connecting bridge still keeps half of four lanes for motor traffic. However, traffic is still being closed due to weather conditions and the investigation by authorities should be finished first.

UPDATE: Reportedly almost 3,000 people are being confined in the airport island as the traffic is not available as of 10 pm JST, September 4.