By EISHI KADO/ Staff Writer
January 9, 2024 at 17:54 JST
A Japan Airlines passenger plane takes off from Runway C at Haneda Airport, where operations resumed on Jan. 8. Burn marks from the fire that destroyed a JAL plane on Jan. 2 remain in the grass. (Taku Hosokawa)
Pilots of taxiing aircraft at Japanese airports will not be notified of their number in the takeoff line for the time being as a controller's instruction may have been misinterpreted in a fatal collision at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Jan. 2.
The transport ministry's decision is one of the emergency countermeasures announced on Jan. 9 following the accident that killed five of the six crew members of a Japan Coast Guard aircraft when it collided with an arriving Japan Airlines Co. passenger jet on Runway C.
“It is one of my key missions to restore confidence in aviation as a means of public transportation,” said transport minister Tetsuo Saito. “We at the transport ministry are determined to go all out to take measures to ensure safety and security of aviation.”
A transcript of air traffic control communication released by the ministry showed that no clear permission to enter the runway was given to the Coast Guard aircraft.
But the plane's captain, who was seriously injured, told Coast Guard officials that he believed that his aircraft had received such permission.
The transcript showed that a controller told the aircraft, “No. 1, taxi to holding point C5,” and the aircraft repeated the instruction and added, “No. 1. Thank you.”
In interviews, retired captains told The Asahi Shimbun said the words No. 1 may have led the Coast Guard crew to believe that their aircraft was granted permission to enter the runway.
The countermeasures announced by the transport ministry also include strengthening surveillance by air traffic controllers, ensuring that pilots closely monitor outside their aircraft and strictly enforcing rules about entering runways.
The ministry also plans to form a committee of experts to study ways to strengthen alert systems for pilots and air traffic controllers to prevent similar runway incursions and collisions.
Ministry: Coast Guard plane not given go-ahead before collision
January 3, 2024
Coast Guard pilot might have misinterpreted orders for ‘No. 1’
January 5, 2024
Sources: Pilot seemed unaware plane hit by JAL jet at Haneda
January 4, 2024
Japanese safety experts search for voice data as workers clear plane debris from runway collision
January 6, 2024
Haneda runway ‘stop’ lights out of service in deadly collision
January 7, 2024
5 dead after JAL airliner crashes into quake aid plane at Tokyo airport
January 3, 2024
Here is a collection of first-hand accounts by “hibakusha” atomic bomb survivors.
A peek through the music industry’s curtain at the producers who harnessed social media to help their idols go global.
Cooking experts, chefs and others involved in the field of food introduce their special recipes intertwined with their paths in life.
A series based on diplomatic documents declassified by Japan’s Foreign Ministry
A series about Japanese-Americans and their memories of World War II
