Flights cancelled at the airport – after a pair of scissors went missing

Hundreds of flights had to be delayed on Saturday – because of a pair of scissors.

A pair of scissors went missing at a Japanese airport, causing security checks to be suspended for about two hours, local media reported.

According to Japanese broadcaster NHK, the scissors were missing from a storage compartment in the departure hall of New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, the country’s second-busiest airport in terms of passenger traffic last year.

The Japanese airline ANA warned its passengers about the delay on X (formerly Twitter), pointing out that there could be delays or cancellations of flights due to security checks.

According to the BBC, 36 flights were cancelled and 201 were delayed. Security checks and flights were eventually resumed the same day, although the scissors had not been found by then.

Those who had already passed security had to go through again, leading to long queues, the BBC reported, and passengers were already struggling with travel chaos following Japan’s Obon holiday.

Meanwhile, two days after the scissors went missing, national daily Nikkan Sports reported that they were found by an employee in the same store where they went missing.

The report of the discovery of the scissors was delayed because the airport had to confirm that it was the same pair of scissors as the missing ones, according to NHK.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism asked Hokkaido airports to investigate the incident to prevent it from happening again.

“We are aware that this is due to inadequate storage and management systems in the store,” Hokkaido Airport told the BBC. “We are aware that this is also an incident that could be linked to an aircraft hijacking or terrorism and will again work to ensure full management awareness.”