A plane crash that saw two planes catch fire in Tokyo happened because a pilot mistakenly thought he had been cleared to enter the runway for takeoff, an investigation has found.
A Japan Airlines 9201 passenger plane landing at Haneda Airport collided with a Japanese Coast Guard plane waiting on the runway on January 2, killing five of the later plane’s six crew members.
All 379 passengers and crew aboard Japan Airlines’ Airbus A350 escaped safely through evacuation shafts minutes before the plane was engulfed by fire.
A 166-page report from Japan’s Transport Safety Board confirmed that two minutes before the collision occurred, the control tower told the coast guard plane: ‘No. 1, taxi to waiting point C5’.
This meant that the aircraft was first in line for take-off and had to wait at the holding point for further instructions.
But the Coast Guard pilot, who survived the accident, said he believed the message meant permission to enter the runway, the report said.
In those final two minutes, the pilot told investigators that he had instructed his co-pilot to go through a checklist that normally begins when a plane is given final clearance to take off.
He also thought he heard the control tower say “ready for departure” about a minute before impact.
A Japan Airlines passenger plane 9201 landing at Haneda Airport collided with a Japanese Coast Guard plane waiting on the runway on January 2
All 379 passengers and crew aboard Japan Airlines’ Airbus A350 escaped safely through evacuation chutes, minutes before the plane was engulfed by fire
The Coast Guard plane delivered rescue supplies to a region of Japan that had been hit by an earthquake the day before.
The ‘No. 1’ meant that the aircraft had been given priority before another aircraft that would normally have gone ahead.
This suggested to the pilot that air traffic controllers shared his desire to act quickly, the report said.
The report also outlined that the pilot was concerned that his colleagues would be late arriving home after delivering supplies and returning to Tokyo.
It was also confirmed that air traffic controllers had not noticed a warning light indicating a possible collision on the runway.
This meant they left the Coast Guard plane on the runway for about 40 seconds while the Japan Airlines plane descended.
The Ministry of Transport said it has taken steps to improve communication between pilots and strengthen warnings about runway incursions.
Footage from the plane showed passengers panicking as smoke filled the cabin.
Some can be seen wearing masks and rags over their mouths in an attempt to limit the amount of smoke they inhale, while others scream in fear.
Shocking footage showed the Japan Airlines plane engulfed by a raging fire as it stood on the runway of Haneda Airport in Ota City, Tokyo, as flames poured from the passenger windows
Firefighters were immediately deployed to the scene, with footage showing firefighters desperately trying to extinguish the flames with multiple hoses
A tower of smoke billowed from the burning wreckage of the plane at Haneda Airport
Another clip showed smoke pouring from the side of the plane as it landed on the airport’s runway, the country’s busiest, which had more than 26.5 million passengers in 2021.
17-year-old Swede Anton Deibe, who was a passenger on the Japan Airlines plane, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that “the entire cabin was filled with smoke within a few minutes.”
She said, “We dropped to the ground. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves into them.
‘The smoke in the cabin stung terribly. It was hell. We have no idea where we are going, so we just run into the field. It was chaos,” added Deibe, who was traveling with his parents and sister.”
Haneda is one of Japan’s busiest airports and many people travel during the New Year holidays.
Japan has not experienced a serious commercial aviation accident in decades.
The worst ever was in 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet flying from Tokyo to Osaka crashed in the central Gunma region, killing 520 passengers and crew.
That disaster was one of the deadliest plane crashes in the world involving a single flight.