Safety concerns were the reason the pilot of a Thai Airways International flight aborted the first attempt to land at Haneda airport in Tokyo last week, the airline said on Wednesday.
Ft Lt Pratana Patanasiri, vice president in charge of aviation safety, said the pilot of flight TG660 decided to go around again because he could not clearly see the runaway he was cleared to land on as the Boeing 747-400 aircraft approached the airport on April 11.
The decision conformed with maximum security guidelines for pilots. Air traffic controllers at Haneda then reassigned a new runway and the plane landed safely, he said.
The flight to Tokyo left Suvarnabhumi airport at 1pm with 384 passengers and crew on board and arrived at Haneda about 9.10pm that day.
The Mainichi on Tuesday reported the aborted landing.
It quoted the Japanese Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism as reporting that an alarm notified the pilots of the aircraft's unusual loss of altitude when the plane was still around 8 kilometres from the airport and only about 170 metres above the ground.
The pilots may have been mistaken about the aircraft's position in relation to the runway, the ministry said.