Japan plane not cleared for takeoff before deadly runway collision
Air traffic control transcripts revealed a small plane was not cleared for takeoff when it collided with a Japan Airlines flight with 12 Australians on board.
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Newly released audio transcripts revealed a small Coast Guard plane was not cleared for takeoff when it collided with a Japan Airlines flight landing at a Tokyo airport.
The air traffic control transcripts showed the Airbus A350 carrying 379 people, including 12 Australians, was permitted to land before it crashed with a De Havilland Dash-8 turboprop at Haneda airport.
All 379 on board the Japan Airlines flight survived but five of the six Coast Guard crew died. The captain survived with severe injuries.
Japanese authorities launched investigations into the cause of the deadly collision, with the first transcripts released appearing to show air traffic controllers telling the Coast Guard aircraft to remain at a holding point near the runway.
The Transport Ministry released the transcripts showing the approval of the JAL flight to land while the coastguard was told to taxi to a holding area nearby, local broadcaster NHK reported.
An unnamed Coast Guard official, however, was reported as saying that the pilot, Genki Miyamoto, 39, said immediately after the accident that he had permission to take off.
Takuya Fujiwara from the Japan Transport Safety Board told reporters that the flight recorder and the voice recorder from the Coast Guard plane had been found, but those of the passenger jet were still being sought.
“We are surveying the situation. Various parts are scattered on the runway,” Fujiwara said, adding that the authority planned to interview several people involved.
Asked at a briefing whether the Japan Airlines flight had landing permission, officials at the major carrier said: “Our understanding is that it was given.”
The blackened husk of the airliner, still sitting on the tarmac Wednesday, bore witness to just how dangerous their escape had been. Several hundred metres (yards) away lay the remains of the Coast Guard’s DHC-8 aircraft.
‘IT’S A MIRACLE’: AUSTRALIANS AMONG SURVIVORS
Twelve Australians were on board the Japan Airlines passenger jet that collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has confirmed.
Mr Albanese said all the Australians were safe and accounted for.
All 367 passengers and 12 crew members escaped Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 before it was engulfed in flames, with experts praising them for their actions.
Earlier, a spokesperson for Foreign Minister Penny Wong confirmed reports that there were 12 Australians on board the passenger plane.
Department of Foreign Affairs officers have been deployed to check in with the Australians but there have been no reports of injuries.
Investigators said the pilot of the De Havilland Dash-8 coast guard aircraft, which was due to deliver aid after a deadly earthquake hit central Japan on New Year’s Day, escaped but the five crew members died.
The captain was said to be in a critical condition, Yahoo Japan reported, and some 17 people were also believed injured.
Dramatic footage showed people fleeing the Airbus A350 on inflatable slides, minutes before the blaze ripped through the aircraft.
The actions of crew and passengers have been credited with averting tragedy.
Michele Robson, a former air traffic controller, said the crew had done “really well to evacuate under very difficult circumstances”. She told Channel 4 News: “It’s natural for passengers to start panicking when they see flames, and obviously there had been come sort of collision, which must have been extremely worrying for those on board.”
John Cox, a pilot and founder of a US-based aviation safety consultancy, told the Guardian the cabin crew “did a remarkably great job” getting passengers off the plane so quickly. “It shows good training,” he said. “And if you look at the video, people are not trying to get stuff out of the overheads. They are concentrating on getting out of the airplane.”
One female passenger told Japanese broadcaster NHK: “It was getting hot inside the plane, and I thought, to be honest, I would not survive.”
Another passenger described surviving the crash as a “miracle”.
“I bounced off my seat from the impact when we landed,” the 28-year-old man told Nikkei Asia. “We made it just in the nick of time. It’s a miracle we survived.”
The tragedy was the first major accident involving an Airbus A350, which is a new aircraft built from materials such as carbon fibre-reinforced plastic.
Escape footage from a plane
— 🦠بونے لوگ (@JustShortMinds) January 2, 2024
Japan 🇯🇵 Coast Guard aircraft Shocking Everyone evacuates Coast Guard aircraft Passengers escape Artificial earthquake Haneda Airport Control error
Plane in flames Plane crash JAL plane After earthquake Coast Guard aircraft Passengers safe Japan Coast… pic.twitter.com/a2hARFiMqB
The BBC reported that experts said the aircraft appears to have stood up well, allowing time for those aboard to escape.
Shigenori Hiraoka, head of the Transport Ministry Civil Aviation Bureau, said the collision occurred when the JAL plane landed on one of Haneda’s four runways where the coast guard aircraft was preparing to take off.
The Japan Airlines flight had departed New Chitose Airport in Sapporo 90 minutes before the disastrous landing.
The plane was seen with flames bursting through its windows on the runway at Haneda International Airport shortly before 6pm local time (8pm AEDT).
Video posted to social media platform X showed people sliding down an inflatable emergency slide from the side of the passenger plane while flames shot out from the rear of the aircraft.
Images on broadcaster NHK showed the plane moving along the runway before an explosion of orange flames burst from beneath and behind it.
JAL said the passenger plane either collided with the other aircraft on a runway or a taxiway after it touched down, Kyodo reported.
Footage apparently shot by a passenger inside the aircraft showed flames coming from underneath it before the cabin filled with smoke.
A Japan Airlines jet is on fire at Tokyo Haneda Airport. 🇯🇵 🚨 âœˆï¸ ðŸ”¥ pic.twitter.com/FaUAd7sERb
— Cole Cameron (@colecameron) January 2, 2024
“Smoke began to fill the plane, and I thought, ‘this could be really bad’,” a male passenger told reporters at the airport.
“An announcement said doors in the back and middle could not be opened. So everyone disembarked from the front,” he said.
A female passenger said it had been dark on board as the fire intensified after landing.
“It was getting hot inside the plane, and I thought, to be honest, I would not survive,” she said in comments shown on broadcaster NHK.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said it was probing the incident, Kyodo said.
Japan has not suffered a serious commercial aviation accident in decades. Its worst ever was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in central Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew.
That disaster was one of the world’s deadliest plane crashes involving a single flight.
Originally published as Japan plane not cleared for takeoff before deadly runway collision
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