Key Points
- A collision occurred between a Japan Airlines plane and a Coast Guard turboprop at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
- Control tower transcripts reveal that the smaller plane was not cleared for take-off prior to the incident.
- Tokyo police are investigating whether possible professional negligence contributed to the crash.
A Japanese civil aviation bureau official says there is no indication that a Coast Guard aircraft involved in a collision was granted permission to take off.
Japanese authorities say a passenger jet that collided with a Coast Guard turboprop at a Tokyo airport was given permission to land but the smaller plane was not cleared for take-off, based on control tower transcripts.
All 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 managed to 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 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 a plane 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 Japan Safety Transport Board (JTSB) is investigating the accident, with participation by agencies in France, where the Airbus jet was built, and Britain, where its two Rolls-Royce engines were manufactured.
Japan Airlines says its plane burned for more than six hours after it crashed at Haneda airport.
The JTSB has recovered the voice recorder from the coast guard aircraft, authorities said.
Meanwhile, Tokyo police are investigating whether possible professional negligence led to deaths and injuries, several media, including Kyodo and the Nikkei business newspaper, said.
