In Photos: Solar Impulse 2 Aircraft Damaged After Landing in Japan

Damage to wing will take at least a week to repair.

The Solar Impulse 2 project staff members gather around the aircraft as it lands the Nagoya Airport in Japan. (Photo: AP)

A solar-powered plane forced to land in Japan will be stuck on the ground for at least a week after wind gusts damaged one of its wings.

The Solar Impulse 2, a solar powered plane, circles above Nagoya airport in Japan before a planned landing. (Photo: Reuters) 

Solar Impulse 2 was headed from China to Hawaii when its team decided to divert to Nagoya, Japan, because of bad weather ahead.

(Photo Courtesy: @solarimpulse)

The Joetsu region in the West coast of Japan is pictured by Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg from the cockpit of the Solar Impulse 2 plane.  (Photo: Reuters)

After landing late Monday, a cover was put over the wing to protect it from the rain and the sun.

The Solar Impulse 2 approaches at Nagoya airport in Japan. (Photo: Reuters)

“There was so much wind and gusts that this cover started to shake on the wing, and damaged an aileron on the trailing edge of the wing,” Bertrand Piccard, the head of the project, said in a video posted on the expedition’s website.

It will take at least one week to repair the wing, he said. The plane has since been covered with an inflatable hanger to protect it.

Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg takes a selfie in the Solar Impulse 2 plane. (Photo: Reuters)

The Solar Impulse departed Nanjing, China, on Sunday on what was expected to be the longest leg of the journey, a six-day, 8,175-kilometre flight to Hawaii.

Instead, the plane landed in Nagoya in central Japan to wait out the unexpected bad weather.

Swiss pilot Andre Borschberg is flying without any fuel.