Narita air traffic controllers briefly abandon tower due to typhoon

I've lived in Japan for quite a few years..... this summer we're on the East coast of Chiba..... we were directly in the typhoon's path, it was the first time I actually closed the shutters out of fear. The winds were that strong. Before the weather got really bad I went for a walk along the beach.... I waded just a few feet into the water.... the ocean water temperature was unbelievably warm... almost tropical. With the water that warm... storm's and typhoon's do not weaken as they approach Japan. Lets hope that was the end of it.... because that typhoon definitely caused a lot of damage.

I live near the airport & concur it was wicked, when the Mrs gets home & see'ss the damage to the yard she wont be happy. I bailed on my flight to FUK late afternoon & they ended up cancelling, had to scramble to get another tomorrow, but there was NO WAY in hell I was going to even attempt to catch my flight today!!

Not surprised they cancelled flights during the peak, but surprising they left the tower. I suppose they must backup systems for controlling (not landing or departures) air traffic though? Don't need windows if no one is going to land

Tower controllers control aircraft landing/departing.

Other control centers control the airspace, eg the Tokyo Air Control Center in Saitama.

Not surprised they cancelled flights during the peak, but surprising they left the tower. I suppose they must backup systems for controlling (not landing or departures) air traffic though? Don't need windows if no one is going to land.

The high-altitude ARTCC's are usually not located on the grounds of an airport. Here in the Washington DC area, the Potomac ARTCC is located out in Leesburg, Virginia. It handles the enroute traffic from Pennsylvania down to North Carolina and out past West Virginia. it's only when the aircraft is within 15 or so miles of its departure/arrival airport that the tower handles them. Once an airport is closed, there's no need to man the tower until it's re-opened.

It got that bad did it?? I eventually left Narita for Europe at midday, after waiting on the runway for an hour cos planes were being given 5 minutes each for take-off. Looks like I was lucky.

Stay safe, and believe it or not, this tropical storm was not that bad, thankfully it wasnt worse. The weather patterns this year and the path of the typhoons is really strange, hopefully this will be the last one that hits you, but dont bet on it.

Not a bad one at all. Winds were very weak.