The B runway ( 16L/34R ) opened on April 17 , 2002 , in time for the World Cup events held in Korea and Japan that year . However , its final length of , much shorter than its original plan length of , left it too short to accommodate Boeing 747s . The runway was further impeded by a three-story concrete building in the path of its taxiway , which the Union had constructed in 1966 , forcing the taxiway to bend inward toward the runway . This imposed restrictions on the number of aircraft that could use the runway , since it was impossible for an aircraft to safely pass through the curve in the taxiway while another aircraft was using the runway . Runway B 's limitations were made particularly apparent following the 2009 crash of FedEx Express Flight 80 , which shut down Runway A and forced some heavy aircraft to divert to other airports
FedEx Express Flight 80
FedEx Express Flight 80
Narita International Airport