The pilots of the Japan Airlines jetliner that collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo's Haneda airport told an internal probe that they could not visually confirm the presence of the JCG plane when touching down, according to the company.

The flight control data unveiled Wednesday showed no sign of controllers directing the JAL plane to abort its landing, suggesting both the airline's pilots and the flight controllers were unaware of the JCG aircraft entering the runway that the jetliner was approaching.

The JCG aircraft is believed to have come to a stop on the runway for around 40 seconds just before the accident, sources close to the matter said, with JAL saying one of the three pilots aboard its plane said he saw something right before the accident that caused him concern.

Photo taken on Jan. 4, 2024, shows a burnt Japan Airlines plane on a runway at Haneda airport in Tokyo that collided with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft while landing. (Kyodo)

The flight control data showed controllers greenlit the jetliner to land while directing the JCG plane to proceed to a holding point, stopping short of allowing it to enter the runway where the collision happened.

The 39-year-old captain of the JCG aircraft, who survived the accident, said he was cleared to enter the runway, according to the coast guard. The JCG added he said the back of the aircraft suddenly caught fire.

JAL said it is providing all the necessary information to Japan's transport authorities and police, which are investigating the cause of the deadly accident on Tuesday that killed five of the six people aboard the JCG's Bombardier DHC8-300 aircraft.

All 379 passengers and crew aboard the JAL Airbus A350 escaped through emergency slides without life-threatening injuries. The aircraft was engulfed in flames shortly after they all evacuated.

The airline said Thursday that it will book a loss of 15 billion yen ($105 million) on an operating basis due to the plane being destroyed, although the loss will be covered by insurance.

The overall impact of the accident on its earnings for fiscal 2023 is still unknown, JAL said. For the business year, the company is expecting to post a net profit of 80 billion yen on sales of 1.68 trillion yen.

The JCG said its aircraft was heading to Niigata Prefecture to deliver relief supplies for people hit by the magnitude-7.6 earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula and surrounding areas on the Sea of Japan coast on New Year's Day.

Japanese air safety experts search for voice data from plane debris

Transport safety officials are searching for the voice recorder from a Japan Airlines airliner that caught fire after a collision with a coast guard plane

ByMARI YAMAGUCHI Associated Press
January 5, 2024, 9:37 AM
Black smoke rises while a removal work is underway at the site of a planes collision at Haneda airport in Tokyo Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Cranes were dismantling the Japan Airlines Flight 516 Airbus A350 that caught fire after hitting a Coast Guard aircraft while it was landing Tuesday at the airport. (Kyodo News via AP)
Black smoke rises while a removal work is underway at the site of a planes collision at Haneda airport in Tokyo Friday, Jan. 5, 2024. Cranes were dismantling the Japan Airlines Flight 516 Airbus A350 that caught fire after...
The Associated Press

A team of transport safety officials searched for a voice recorder from the severely burned fuselage of a Japan Airlines plane Friday, seeking crucial information on what caused a collision with a small coast guard plane on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport.

Meanwhile, JAL also started using heavy machinery to remove some of the debris for storage in a hangar to allow the runway to reopen.

Six experts from the Japan Transport Safety Board, walked through the mangled debris of the Airbus A350-900 that was lying on the runway searching for the voice data recorder.

JTSB experts have so far secured both the flight and voice data recorders from the coast guard’s Bombardier Dash-8 and a flight data recorder from the JAL plane to find out what happened in the last few minutes before Tuesday's fatal collision.

All 379 occupants of JAL Flight 516 safely evacuated within 18 minutes of landing as the aircraft was engulfed in flames. The pilot of the coast guard plane also escaped, but its five other crewmembers were killed.

New details have also emerged from media footage at Haneda airport. NHK television reported footage from its monitoring camera set up at the Haneda airport showed that the coast guard plane moved on to the runway and stopped there for about 40 seconds before the collision.

In the footage, the coast guard aircraft is seen entering the runway from the C5 taxiway, then shortly after the passenger plane touches down right behind and rams into it, creating an orange fireball. The JAL airliner, covered with flames and spewing gray smoke, continues down the runway before coming to a stop.

Transcript of the recorded communication at the traffic control, released by the transport ministry Wednesday, showed that the air traffic controller told the coast guard plane to taxi to a holding position just before the runway, noting its No. 1 departure priority. The coast guard pilot repeats the instruction, then offers thanks for the No. 1 slot. There was no further instruction from the control allowing the coast guard to enter the runway.

The pilot told police investigators that his aircraft was struck just as he powered up the engines after obtaining clearance to take off.

The small lights on the coast guard aircraft and its 40-second stop might have made it less visible to the JAL pilots and air traffic control. NHK also said that air traffic control officials may have missed an alert system for unauthorized runway entry while engaging in other operations.

The JTSB investigators on Friday planned to interview seven JAL cabin attendants to get their accounts, after their similar interviews with the three pilots and two other attendants the day before.

As aircraft manufacturer, Airbus officials are also joining the investigation, a requirement under international aviation safety rules, according to the board.


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