Photos show melted remains of jet that caught on fire at Tokyo airport as air traffic control tapes reveal mix-up
Japanese investigators on Wednesday studied the burned-out husk of the passenger plane that burst into a ball of fire on the runway a day earlier, as air traffic control recordings pointed blame at the earthquake-relief plane it hit.
Photos from Haneda International Airport showed that just the wings and tail of the torched Japan Airlines plane remained on the runway.
The charred cockpit was completely separated from the rest of the torched Airbus A350 — from which 379 passengers and 12 crew miraculously escaped.
The plane had been landing at the Tokyo airport Tuesday when it hit a coast guard jet, killing five service members taking aid to the victims of a deadly earthquake.
Authorities say the passenger plane had received permission to land, while air traffic controllers told the coast guard pilot to “hold.”
According to a transcript of air traffic control communications from roughly five minutes before the crash, a controller told the Japan Airlines flight to “continue approach” to Runway C when it arrived around 5:47 p.m.
The Japan Airlines flight crew then “acknowledged and repeated” the order before they made their way to the runway, airline officials stressed in a news release.
Members of the coast guard crew then said they were taxiing onto the same runway, and the air traffic controller instructed them to proceed to the stop line before the aircraft reached the runway.
The controller noted that the coast guard flight gets departure priority and the pilot moved to the stop line.
However, it was never cleared for takeoff.
An official with the coast guard claimed the flight was given permission to enter the runway and prepare for takeoff, while acknowledging the transcript does not show that, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reports.
Transportation officials are focusing on those communications between air traffic control officials and the two aircraft crews as they continue their investigation.
The Japanese Transport Safety Board said investigators plan to interview the pilots and officials from both sides, as well as air traffic control officials to find out how the two planes ended up on the runway.
They will be assisted by British and French aircraft experts.
Meanwhile, local police are investigating whether there was any professional negligence.
“There’s a strong possibility this involved human error,” Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a former Japan Airlines pilot and aviation analyst, told the Guardian.
“Only one plane is generally allowed to enter the runway, but even though landing clearance had been given, the Japanese coast guard aircraft was on the runway.”
Only one member of the coast guard crew onboard the Bombardier Dash-8 maritime patrol plane survived the collision: Capt. Genki Miyomoto, 39, who reportedly pulled himself from the wreckage before radioing for help.
Fourteen people aboard the passenger plane were also treated at a local hospital.
One had bruising and 13 others requested medical consultations “due to physical discomfort,” Japan Airlines officials said in a news release.
They told how the flight crew had to direct the 379 passengers off the plane and onto emergency slides using megaphones and “their own voices” after the aircraft’s announcement system malfunctioned.
“The entire cabin was filled with smoke within a few minutes,” Swedish passenger Anton Deibe, 17, told Aftonbladet.
“We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them.”
Footage and images shared on social media showed passengers shouting inside the smoke-filled cabin and running across the tarmac away from an evacuation slide.
“I felt a boom like we had hit something and jerked upward the moment we landed,” a passenger on the JAL flight told Kyodo news agency. “I saw sparks outside the window and the cabin filled with gas and smoke.”
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida instructed relevant agencies to coordinate to assess the damage, according to his office.
With Post wires
