Japan says Coast Guard plane apparently did not have clearance to take off before runway collision By Reuters

By Maki Shiraki, Daniel Leussink and Lisa Barrington

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japanese authorities said on Wednesday that a passenger plane that collided with a Coast Guard turboprop at a Tokyo airport was cleared to land, but the smaller plane was not cleared to take off, according to transcripts. the control tower.

All 379 people aboard the Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 managed to evacuate after it burst into flames following Tuesday's crash with a Coast Guard De Havilland Dash-8 turboprop shortly after landing at Haneda Airport.

But five died among six Coast Guard crew members due to depart on a flight in response to a major earthquake off the west coast of Japan, while the captain, who escaped the wreckage, was seriously injured.

Authorities have only just begun their investigations and uncertainty remains about the circumstances surrounding the crash, including how the two planes ended up on the same runway. Experts emphasize that it is usually necessary for several safety rails to fail for a plane accident to occur.

But transcripts of traffic control instructions released by authorities appeared to show that the Japan Airlines plane had been given permission to land, while the Coast Guard plane had been told to taxi to a holding point nearby. track.

An official at Japan's civil aviation bureau told reporters that there was no indication in those transcripts that the Coast Guard plane had been granted permission to take off.

The captain of the turboprop plane said he had entered the runway after receiving permission, a Coast Guard official said, although he acknowledged there was no indication in the transcripts that he had been authorized to do so.

“The Ministry of Transport is presenting factual material and will fully cooperate with the…investigation to ensure that we work together to take all possible safety measures to prevent a recurrence,” Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito told reporters. .

The Japan Transportation Safety Board (JTSB) is investigating the crash, involving agencies in France, where the Airbus plane was built, and in Britain, where its two Rolls-Royce (OTC:) engines were manufactured.

The JTSB recovered the voice recorder from the Coast Guard plane, authorities said.

POLICE INVESTIGATION

Meanwhile, Tokyo police are investigating whether possible professional negligence led to deaths or injuries, several media outlets, including Kyodo and the business newspaper, reported.

Police set up a unit to investigate and planned to interview those involved, a spokesman said, declining to say whether they were examining suggestions of negligence. Parallel investigations have raised concerns in the past about tensions between civilian security investigations and police-led investigations.

“There is a strong possibility that there was human error,” said aviation analyst Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a former JAL pilot.

“Air accidents rarely happen because of a single problem, so I think this time there were also two or three problems that led to the accident.”

In a statement Wednesday, JAL said the plane acknowledged and repeated the landing clearance from air traffic control before approaching and landing.

All passengers and crew were evacuated within 20 minutes of the crash, but the plane, engulfed in flames, burned for more than six hours, the airline said.

The Coast Guard plane, one of six based at the airport, was due to transport aid to regions affected by Monday's 7.6 magnitude earthquake that killed 64 people, with survivors braving frigid temperatures and prospects of heavy rains.

The crash forced the cancellation of 137 domestic and four international flights on Wednesday, the government said.

But emergency flights and high-speed rail services have been requested to ease congestion, Transport Minister Saito said.

Michael Daniel, a former U.S. accident investigator, said investigators will look to make recommendations.

“The main thing is situational awareness: what would they have told the waiting pilot before entering a runway?… And then, what was the understanding of the air traffic? Did the controller give them clearance to take off?… “A lot of that information will come to light when they begin reviewing the cockpit voice recorder as well as the air traffic tapes.”