Photo/Illutration Police officers examine the wreckage of the destroyed Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Haneda Airport on Jan. 4. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

Japanese safety authorities reported at least 23 “serious incidents” on runways over 10 years through 2023 where investigators judged there was a risk of collision between aircraft or with other vehicles.

The Asahi Shimbun analyzed aircraft serious incident investigation reports released by the Japan Transport Safety Board for 19 cases following a fatal collision between a Japan Airlines Co. passenger jet and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Jan. 2.

The newspaper also examined the remaining four cases into which the board is still investigating.

Twelve of the 19 runway incursions were attributed to aircraft or work vehicles on the ground.

In June 2018, two Air Self-Defense Force aircraft prepared for takeoff on a runway at Naha Airport where a passenger plane was about to land.

Air traffic controllers told the SDF aircraft to “hold short of runway,” but the pilots likely entered the runway mistaking the instruction as “line up and wait,” according to a JTSB report.

In five cases, mistakes in air traffic control were suspected as a cause.

In April 2015, a controller forgot about a work vehicle on a runway at Tokushima Airport and gave a landing clearance to an aircraft.

The pilot of the aircraft noticed the vehicle just before landing and executed a “go-around,” or an aborted landing.

Two cases were attributable to approaching aircraft.

In August 2021, an aircraft landed at Kumamoto Airport after failing to hear a go-around instruction.

A controller ordered the go-around because a helicopter that had suspended its takeoff was using the runway.

The fixed-wing aircraft was engaged in a touch-and-go landing exercise and the captain was instructing a trainee, according to a JTSB report.

Four of the 23 cases occurred at Naha Airport, followed by three at Haneda Airport.

At Haneda Airport, a passenger aircraft entered a runway without permission in October 2018 after mistaking permission given to cross the runway for another aircraft as one for its own.

In June 2019, air traffic controllers gave a landing clearance for a passenger aircraft while issuing permission to cross the same runway for another passenger aircraft.

In the Jan. 2 collision, five of the six crew members of the Coast Guard aircraft were killed.

A former member of the JTSB said multiple human errors may have overlapped and led to the accident.

“Similar serious incidents that have been reported were basically caused by human error,” the source said.

HANEDA RANKED 3RD BUSIEST AIRPORT

Haneda Airport is known as one of the world’s busiest airports, where an aircraft departure or arrival occurs every two to three minutes during peak hours, or intervals as close as on the JR Yamanote Line in central Tokyo.

In fiscal 2022, the airport handled about 413,000 takeoffs and landings, or a daily average of about 1,130, compared with about 455,000 in fiscal 2018.

The number of takeoff and landing slots was expanded to about 490,000 a year in March 2020, ahead of the Tokyo Olympics, which was rescheduled to 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2023, Haneda was ranked third in the Busiest Global Airports compiled by the British aviation information company OAG based on total airline capacity, or domestic and international seat capacity.

It served domestic and international flights with a total of about 52.69 million seats after Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport with about 61.23 million seats and Dubai International Airport with about 56.50 million seats.

Haneda Airport opened in 1931 with a single runway. The fourth runway was added in 2010.

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