Japan’s new passenger plane completes US flight

TOKYO: Japan’s problem-plagued new passenger jet on Thursday completed a flight to the United States for testing, its maker said, after aborting two earlier attempts. The Mitsubishi Regional Jet (MRJ) touched down at Grant County international airport in Washington state after flying from Anchorage.

The first domestically made passenger jet, which left Nagoya airport on Monday, also stopped in Japan’s northernmost Hokkaido, Russia and Alaska for fuelling. The plane’s maker Mitsubishi Heavy said it will carry out multiple flight tests in the US to get a certificate necessary for starting commercial flights in 2018. (AFP)