Japan investigates aircraft communication moments before Haneda airport crash

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Japanese authorities are investigating the communications between the control tower and aircraft in the moments before a deadly runway collision on Tuesday night between two planes at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.

A Japan Airlines-operated Airbus A350 was landing when it struck a smaller De Havilland Dash-8 Japan Coast Guard aircraft, which was preparing to deliver emergency relief supplies to regions of western Japan that were struck by an earthquake this week.

All 367 passengers and 12 crew from the JAL flight managed to escape the crash, but five of the six-member Coast Guard crew were killed.

The Japan Transport Safety Board is investigating the incident along with police and other official agencies. The JTSB told reporters on Wednesday that it had retrieved the flight and voice recorders of the Coast Guard plane, but had not found their counterparts in the JAL aircraft.

Local media reported that the investigation will examine possible misunderstandings between the control tower and aircraft, among other strands of inquiry, citing unnamed officials close to the probe.

Airbus and France’s BEA civil aviation safety agency are also planning to send teams to assist in the investigation, Japan’s official NHK news agency reported.

JAL said in a statement that interviews with the crew of the flight showed that pilots had acknowledged and repeated the landing permission granted by air traffic control at Haneda. The airline added that its aircraft had not experienced any issues or irregularities during its journey from Sapporo’s New Chitose Airport.

The collision appeared to have caused both aircraft to burst into flames. Mobile phone footage taken by passengers on the JAL flight showed panic erupting as the packed cabin filled with smoke and flames rose outside the windows.

Later footage, some of it shared on social media, showed passengers fleeing the plane in what survivors told local TV was a terrifying but faultlessly executed evacuation of the flight by the JAL crew. The plane continued to burn for many hours before the blaze could be brought under control.

Images captured after daybreak on Wednesday morning showed what remained of the JAL plane, its main wings and tail identifiable but the fuselage almost completely reduced to ashes.

Though three of the four runways at Haneda — Japan’s busiest airport — were reopened by late Tuesday night, more than 100 flights operated by JAL and its main rival, ANA, had been cancelled.

The incident added to travel disruption caused by Monday’s earthquake in Ishikawa prefecture, as large numbers of people prepare to return to Tokyo after the new year holiday.

The magnitude 7.6 tremor, which triggered a tsunami along Japan’s western coast, has claimed more than 60 lives, while search teams continue to work in cold and treacherous conditions to find survivors.

The Japan Coast Guard said it was investigating the details of the crash.

“We will continue to co-operate fully with the police investigation and inquiry to clarify the facts,” said a spokesperson, who confirmed that the investigation would probe communications to and from the aircraft involved in the accident.