After a fiery accident at Tokyo’s main airport in which hundreds of people managed to escape to safety but five people perished, the government of Japan announced on Wednesday that it had reinforced its air traffic control standards.
Following a passenger plane operated by Japan Airlines colliding with a coast guard aircraft on a runway at Haneda Airport on January 2, the transport ministry announced the emergency safety measures.
The airliner’s 379 passengers and six crew members were quickly evacuated, but the smaller plane’s five crew members perished as it attempted to carry supplies to an area affected by an earthquake.
A staff member is required to continuously monitor a system that notifies control towers of runway incursions under the new regulations implemented countrywide.
And to prevent misunderstandings, controllers must not tell planes what number in line they are for take-off, the ministry said in statements uploaded to its website.
“One of my biggest missions is to restore confidence in aviation as public transport,” Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito said Tuesday.
The ministry will set up an expert panel to investigate further ways to improve safety, with their recommendations to be announced this week.
A transcript of communications released by the ministry last week suggested that the JAL plane was cleared to land, but the coast guard plane was instructed to halt before the runway.
The Coast Guard plane, designated “No.1” by controllers, indicated it was the next aircraft in line to take off.
The lone survivor, a coast guard pilot, has stated that he thought he had permission to take off onto the runway, where his aircraft was for about 40 seconds before to the incident.
After the burned remains of both aircraft were removed from the Haneda tarmac, flight operations resumed as usual. Since Saturday, additional personnel have been stationed at the airport’s control tower.
Since the weekend, a committed employee has also been keeping an eye on Haneda’s warning system.
“Control centre staff have to monitor various things and can’t simply stare at the warning system,” a transport ministry official in charge of aviation affairs explained to AFP.
In the decade to 2023, at least 23 “serious incidents” that risked a runway collision were reported by the Japan Transport Safety Board, according to the Asahi newspaper.
In five of the cases, mistakes in air traffic control were suspected as a cause, the newspaper said.
