UPDATED 3:40 P.M.
TOKYO (Reuters) -Japanese authorities said on Wednesday a passenger jet that collided with a Coast Guard turboprop at a Tokyo airport had been given permission to land, but the smaller plane had not been cleared for take-off, based on control tower transcripts.
All 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 managed to evacuate after it erupted in flames following Tuesday’s crash with a De Havilland Dash-8 Coast Guard turboprop shortly after landing at Haneda airport.
But five died among the six Coast Guard crew who were due to depart on a flight responding to a major earthquake on Japan’s west coast, while the captain, who escaped the wreckage, was badly injured.
Authorities have only just begun their investigations and there remains uncertainty over the circumstances surrounding the crash, including how the two aircraft ended up on the same runway. Experts stress it usually takes the failure of multiple safety guardrails for an airplane accident to happen.
But transcripts of traffic control instructions released by authorities appeared to show the Japan Airlines jet had been given permission to land while the Coast Guard aircraft had been told to taxi to a holding point near the runway.
An official from Japan’s civil aviation bureau told reporters there was no indication in those transcripts that the Coast Guard aircraft had been granted permission to take off.
The captain of the turboprop plane said he had entered the runway after receiving permission, a Coast Guard official said, while acknowledging that there was no indication in the transcripts that he had been cleared to do so.
“The transport ministry is submitting objective material and will fully cooperate with the … investigation to ensure we work together to take all possible safety measures to prevent a recurrence,” Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito told reporters.
The Japan Safety Transport Board (JTSB) is investigating the accident, with participation by agencies in France, where the Airbus jet was designed, and Britain, where its two Rolls-Royce engines were manufactured. In Canada, where the Coast Guard Dash-8 was originally built by Bombardier, the TSB safety agency said it would also take part.
The JTSB has recovered the voice recorder from the coast guard aircraft, authorities said.
POLICE INQUIRY
Meanwhile, Tokyo police are investigating whether possible professional negligence led to deaths and injuries, several media outlets, including Kyodo and the Nikkei business newspaper, said.
Police have set up an investigation unit at the airport and plan to interview those involved, a spokesperson said, declining to say whether they were examining any suggestions of negligence.
Parallel air crash investigations have raised concerns in the past over tensions between civil safety investigations, which rely on open discussion of errors to help improve safety, and police-led inquiries, which are designed to apportion blame.
“There’s a strong possibility there was a human error,” said aviation analyst Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who is a former JAL pilot.
“Aircraft accidents very rarely occur due to a single problem, so I think that this time too there were two or three issues that led to the accident.”
A notice to pilots in force before the accident suggested that a strip of stop lights embedded in the tarmac as an extra safety measure to prevent wrong turns, was out of service, according to a copy of the bulletin posted by U.S. regulators.
“This is something the investigators will look at,” said U.S. aviation safety consultant John Cox.
In a statement on Wednesday, JAL said the aircraft recognised and repeated the landing permission from air traffic control before approaching and touching down.
All passengers and crew were evacuated within 20 minutes of the crash, but the aircraft, engulfed in flames, burned for more than six hours, the airline said.
The Coast Guard aircraft, one of six based at the airport, had been due to transport aid to regions hit by Monday’s earthquake of magnitude 7.6 that has killed 64 people, with survivors facing freezing temperatures and prospects of heavy rain.
The accident forced the cancellation of 137 domestic, and four international flights on Wednesday, the government said.
But emergency flights and high-speed rail services were requested to ease the congestion, Transport Minister Saito said.
Michael Daniel, a former U.S. accident investigator, said investigators will be looking to make recommendations.
“The main thing is the situational awareness: what is it they would have told the pilot holding short of getting on a runway … And then what was air traffic’s understanding. Did the controller give them clearance to take off? … A lot of that information will come out when they start reviewing the cockpit voice recorder as well as the air traffic tapes.”
(Reporting by Maki Shiraki, Kaori Kaneko, Daniel Leussink and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo, Lisa Barrington in Seoul, Allison Lampert in Montreal and Jamie Freed in Sydney; Writing by John Geddie, Tim Hepher; Editing by Lincoln Feast, Raju Gopalakrishnan, Mark Heinrich, Alexandra Hudson and Sandra Maler)
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TOKYO (Reuters) -Japan’s transport authorities began inspecting on Wednesday the charred remains of a passenger jet and a coast guard plane that collided at a Tokyo airport, while media said police were also investigating possible professional negligence in the case.
All 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 had a miraculous escape after it erupted in flames following Tuesday’s crash with a De Havilland Dash-8 Coast Guard turboprop shortly after landing at Haneda airport.
But five died among the six Coast Guard crew responding to a major earthquake on the west coast, while the captain, who escaped the wreckage, was badly injured.
Such runway collisions, once a recurring safety problem, have become far less frequent, say aviation experts, thanks to modern ground tracking technology and procedures.
Japanese authorities say the cause of the crash is unclear.
The Japan Safety Transport Board (JTSB) is investigating the incident, with participation by agencies in France, where the Airbus airplane was built, and Britain, where its two Rolls-Royce engines were made, people familiar with the matter said.
The JTSB has recovered flight and voice recorders from the coast guard aircraft, Kyodo news agency said, citing the agency.
Tokyo police are investigating whether possible professional negligence led to deaths and injuries, several media, including Kyodo and the Nikkei business newspaper, said.
Police set up a special unit airport to investigate the runway and planned to interview those involved, a spokesperson said, but declined to say if they were examining the negligence concerns.
“There’s a strong possibility there was a human error,” said aviation analyst Hiroyuki Kobayashi, who is a former JAL pilot.
“Aircraft accidents very rarely occur due to a single problem, so I think that this time too there were two or three issues that led to the accident.”
At a series of press conferences since the crash, officials and airline executives have been asked what information crew received from traffic control and why both planes ended up on the same runway.
In a statement on Wednesday, JAL said the aircraft recognized and repeated the landing permission from air traffic control before approaching and touching down.
All passengers and crew were evacuated within 20 minutes of the crash, but the aircraft, engulfed in flames, burned for more than six hours, the airline said.
The JAL plane – flight 516 – was told to continue its approach to runway 34R at 5:43 p.m. (0843GMT), and was given clearance to land at 5:45 p.m.
That was two minutes before authorities say the collision occurred on the same runway at 5:47 p.m., according to air traffic control recordings posted at liveATC.net. “Clear to land 34R Japan Airlines 516,” a controller can be heard saying in one recording, referring to the passenger jet by its flight number.
The civil aviation bureau of Japan’s transport ministry did not immediately provide comment. Earlier, an official at Haneda airport had referred Reuters to the bureau.
Public broadcaster NHK was among media that said officials had offered conflicting reports on the instructions given to the coast guard plane, raising questions over whether it was told to approach and stop before the runway or take off.
The Coast Guard has declined to comment on the circumstances of the crash.
Reuters could not clearly make out air traffic control instructions given to the Coast Guard plane on recordings from liveATC.net.
The plane, one of six Coast Guard aircraft based at the airport, had been due to deliver aid to regions hit by Monday’s earthquake of magnitude 7.6 that has killed 64, while survivors face freezing temperatures and prospects of heavy rain.
The accident forced the cancellation of 116 domestic, and four international, flights on Wednesday, the government said.
But emergency flights and high-speed rail services were helping to ease the congestion, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi told reporters.
(Reporting by Kaori Kaneki, Daniel Leussink and Nobuhiro Kubo in Tokyo and Lisa Barrington in Seoul; Writing by John Geddie; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)
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