Japan plane not cleared for takeoff before collision
TOKYO — 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 takeoff, based on control tower transcripts.
All 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines 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 sixmember coast guard crew who were due to depart on a flight responding to a major earthquake on Japan’s west coast which has killed more than 80. 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 Japan Transport Safety Board 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.
The JTSB said Canada, where the coast guard plane Dash-8 was originally built by Bombardier, would also take part.
The JTSB has recovered the voice recorder from the coast guard aircraft, authorities said.
No ‘visual contact’
Pilots on the Japan Airlines plane had no “visual contact” with the other aircraft in the collision, the airline said on Thursday.
The three pilots were also unable to see the fire from the cockpit when it first broke out and were informed of it by cabin crew, a JAL spokesman told Agence France-Presse.
Meanwhile, Tokyo police are investigating whether possible professional negligence led to deaths and injuries, several local media outlets reported.
Japan Airlines estimated the disaster would result in an operating loss of about 15 billion yen ($104 million). The loss of the aircraft will be covered by insurance, the company said, adding that it was assessing the impact on its earnings forecast for the financial year ending March 31.