A US-bound ANA plane had to return to Tokyo after an intoxicated passenger bit a cabin attendant mid-flight, the Japanese carrier said on Wednesday.

The passenger, reportedly a 55-year-old man believed to be American, sunk his teeth into crew member’s arm while “heavily drunk”, leaving her mildly injured, an All Nippon Airways spokesman told AFP.

The incident prompted pilots of the plane with 159 passengers on board to turn back over the Pacific to Haneda airport, where the man was handed over to police, according to ANA.

Japanese broadcaster TBS quoted the passenger as telling investigators that he “doesn’t recall at all” his behaviour.

The incident left some social media users likening it in mock horror to the “beginning of a zombie movie”.

Others lamented the litany of Japanese aviation woes so far this year — with four other incidents making headlines in just over two weeks.

The most serious was a near-catastrophic collision at Haneda between a Japan Airlines aircraft and a smaller coast guard plane on January 2.

All 379 people on board the JAL Airbus escaped just before the aircraft was engulfed in flames.

Five of the six people on the smaller aircraft, which was helping in a relief operation after a major earthquake in central Japan, died.