Photo/Illutration Hiroyuki Hayashi, the Japan Coast Guard’s chief of Haneda Air Station, delivers a speech of condolence to bereaved family members at a public funeral held in Tokyo on March 2. (Yuki Shibata)

The Japan Coast Guard held a public funeral in Tokyo on March 2 for the five crew members killed in a fiery Jan. 2 collision between a JCG aircraft and a Japan Airlines passenger jet on the runway at Haneda Airport.

The event was held two months to the day since the fatal crash occurred.

The aircraft involved in the collision belonged to the Haneda Air Station of the 3rd Regional Coast Guard Headquarters. It was heading to Niigata to provide relief supplies for victims of the Noto Peninsula earthquake that hit Jan. 1. The pilot was seriously injured and the remaining five people on board perished.

All 379 passengers and crew members on the JAL plane, an Airbus A350-900, escaped the burning wreckage. However, 14 suffered slight injuries.

Approximately 300 people, including the bereaved families, attended the ceremony and offered flowers in memory of the five.

After everyone joined in a silent prayer, Toshiya Hayama, head of the regional coast guard headquarters, said, “I am proud of you, who devoted yourselves to the execution of your duties with a strong sense of mission and responsibility.”

The chief of the Haneda Air Station, Hiroyuki Hayashi, read the eulogy, naming each of the five.

After the ceremony, an attorney representing the bereaved families shared some of the grief they are feeling.

“We ask that no more families suffer grief like ours ever again,” the lawyer said.

After the accident, the JCG suspended flights by Haneda Air Station personnel to provide psychological care for the staff, but helicopter operations have resumed. A JCG official said flight training will resume to improve the skills of pilots and others.

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