Collision in early January at Tokyo airport resulted from multiple human errors – Observer

On January 2 this year, a Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger plane and a Japanese Coast Guard plane collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda International Airport. The 379 people on board the commercial plane got out safely. Five (out of six) occupants of the Coast Guard plane were killed.

Now, a preliminary report from the transport authority concludes that several human errors contributed to the accident. Both the pilot and co-pilot of the Coast Guard plane believed they had permission from air control to enter the runway. Which didn’t happen.

But, according to the report cited by Japanese newspapers, air traffic control also failed to notice the presence of the plane on the runway while the JAL plane was landing, which only glimpsed the other aircraft on the ground moments before the collision.

According to the report, air control indicated to the Coast Guard plane that it was “number 1,” meaning that it was the next plane to take off despite there being other aircraft on the taxiway. But as these planes had instructions to go to the furthest point on the runway, the Coast Guard pilot considered that he had been given priority due to the nature of his mission, as he was on an operation to deliver goods to the victims of the earthquake that had occurred. at the beginning of the year on the Noto Peninsula.

The pilot admits that he was in a hurry and declared that he considered that he was being given instructions from the tower to proceed for take-off. Air controllers, according to the report, diverted their attention from the Guard apparatus to other air traffic issues.

Japan Airlines plane that collided with Coast Guard plane was allowed to land, control center transcripts appear to indicate