“There’s a robust risk there was a human error,” mentioned Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a former JAL pilot and aviation analyst.
“Just one airplane is mostly allowed to enter the runway however though touchdown clearance had been given, the Japan Coast Guard plane was on the runway.”
A Japan Airways airplane is on fireplace on the runway of Haneda airport on Tuesday night.Credit score: Kyodo Information through AP
The JAL airplane was informed to proceed its strategy to runway 34R at 17:43 Tokyo time, and was given clearance to land at 17:45, two minutes earlier than authorities say the collision occurred on the identical runway at 17:47, in accordance with air site visitors management recordings accessible at liveATC.internet.
“Clear to land 34R Japan Airways 516,” a controller will be heard saying in a recording.
Haneda airport didn’t instantly have touch upon the recordings.
JAL mentioned in an announcement on Tuesday the plane recognised and repeated the touchdown permission from air site visitors management earlier than approaching and touching down.
The Coast Guard has declined to touch upon the circumstances surrounding the crash, together with why the airplane was on the runway and whether or not it was stationary or transferring when catastrophe struck.
Firefighters examine part of the Japanese coast guard plane on the runway of Haneda Airport on Tuesday.Credit score: Kyodo Information through AP
Stay footage on public broadcaster NHK confirmed the airliner burst into flames because it skidded down the tarmac shortly earlier than 6pm (8pm AEST).
“I felt a increase like we had hit one thing and jerked upward the second we landed,” a passenger on the Japan Airways flight informed Kyodo information company. “I noticed sparks outdoors the window and the cabin full of fuel and smoke.”
Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that 5 of the Coast Guard plane’s crew had died, whereas the captain of the airplane had been injured.
A ministry official informed a press briefing the JAL airplane was making an attempt to land usually when it collided with the maritime patrol airplane on the runway.
There had been no reviews of engine or different issues on the airliner earlier than the touchdown, the official mentioned.
The Coast Guard mentioned its airplane was headed to Niigata on Japan’s west coast to ship help to these caught up in a robust earthquake that struck on New Yr’s Day, killing at the least 64 individuals.
A number of investigations
In addition to the police probe, the Japan Security Transport Board (JTSB) can be investigating the crash, with participation from businesses in France, the place the Airbus airplane was constructed, and Britain the place its two Rolls-Royce engines have been manufactured, individuals acquainted with the matter mentioned.
Airbus mentioned it was additionally sending technical advisers to help within the investigation.
JTSB has recovered flight and voice recorders from the coast guard plane, Kyodo information company reported, citing the company.
Whereas all passengers and crew have been evacuated round 20 minutes after the crash, the plane was fully engulfed in flames and burned for greater than six hours, the airline mentioned.
Smoke-filled cabin
Footage and pictures shared on social media confirmed passengers shouting contained in the smoke-filled cabin and operating throughout the tarmac away from an evacuation slide.
Swede Anton Deibe, 17, who was a passenger on the Japan Airways airplane, informed Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that “your entire cabin was full of smoke inside a couple of minutes. We threw ourselves down on the ground. Then the emergency doorways have been opened and we threw ourselves at them”.
“The smoke within the cabin stung like hell. It was a hell. We do not know the place we’re going, so we simply run out into the sphere. It was chaos,” added Deibe, who was travelling together with his mother and father and sister.
A spokesperson at Japan Airways mentioned its plane had departed from New Chitose Airport on the mountainous northern island of Hokkaido.
Loading
Prime Minister Fumio Kishida mentioned authorities have been working to make sure the accident didn’t have an effect on deliveries of earthquake aid provides.
“It is a nice remorse because the crew members carried out their duties with a robust sense of mission and duty for the victims of the catastrophe space,” he mentioned, referring to these killed on the coast guard airplane.