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TOKYO (AP) — A transcript of communication between traffic and two planes that collided and caught fire at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport showed that only Japan Airlines’ largest passenger flight was cleared to use the runway where a Coast Guard plane was preparing for takeoff.
An orange fireball erupted from both planes Tuesday night as JAL Flight 516 continued down the runway covered in flames and spewing gray smoke. Within 20 minutes, all 379 passengers and crew members slipped by emergency parachute and survived. The pilot of the Coast Guard plane, a Bombardier Dash-8, was evacuated injured, but five crew members were killed.
The Transport Ministry released a transcript Wednesday of air traffic control communication of about 4 minutes and 25 seconds just before the crash. It showed no clear takeoff approval was given to the coast guard plane. According to the text, the Tokyo air control gave the JAL Airbus A350 permission to land on Runway C, noting that there is a departing plane, with the JAL pilot repeating the instruction.
The coast guard plane said it was taxiing to the same runway, and the traffic control instructs it to proceed to the stop line ahead of the runway. The controller noted the coast guard gets the departure priority, and the pilot said he was moving to the stop line.
Their communication in the script ends there. Two minutes later, there was a three-second pause, indicating the moment of the collision.
Police began a separate probe into possible professional negligence. Tokyo police said that investigators examined the debris on the runway and were conducting interviews. They said 17 JAL passengers were slightly injured.
The JAL plane had taken off from Shin Chitose Airport near the northern city of Sapporo, and Bombardier’s coast guard was preparing to leave for Niigata to bring aid to the central regions hit by strong earthquakes on Monday that killed more than 60 people.
On Wednesday, six experts from Japan’s Transport Safety Board tested what was left of the plane, the board said. Television footage showed the A350’s wings badly broken between the charred and broken parts of the fuselage. The Coast Guard’s smallest plane looked like a pile of rubble Council researcher Takuya Fujiwara said his team recovered flight knowledge and voice recorders from the Bombardier for analysis.
Investigators plan to interview the pilots, officials as well as air traffic control officials to find out how the two planes simultaneously ended up on the runway, JTSB said.
The two sides had other interpretations about his permission to use the track.
JAL CEO Tadayuki Tsutsumi told a press convention on Tuesday that the A350 made a “normal access and landing” on the runway and that the pilot said he did not recognize the Bombardier. Another JAL executive, Noriyuki Aoki, said the plane had been cleared to land.
Air traffic officials gave the JAL plane permission to land while telling the Coast Guard pilot to wait before entering the runway, according to the Department of Transportation transcript. But according to a report via NHK television, the Coast Guard pilot said he had been cleared to take off. The Coast Guard said the government was verifying the claim.
All passengers and crew members left their baggage and slid down the escape chutes within 20 minutes of the landing as smoke filled the cabin of the burning aircraft — an outcome praised by aviation experts. Videos posted by passengers showed people covering their mouths with handkerchiefs as they ducked down and moved toward the exits. Some passengers told news media they felt safe only after reaching a grassy area beyond the tarmac.
“The entire cabin filled with smoke in a matter of minutes. We threw ourselves on the ground. Then the emergency doors opened and we threw ourselves on them,” Swedish passenger Anton Deibe, 17, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. The cabin is incredibly spicy. “
Even after evacuating the plane safely, passengers on the tarmac felt a new horror as flames engulfed the plane and one of the plane’s engines woke up as if it was about to take off, said William Manzione, who was aboard the plane. The team yelled for them to get off the plane.
“The feeling was this is about to explode,” Manzione told Sky News. “That was the biggest moment of fear for me and the other passengers.”
Fire is likely considered a key element for aircraft fuselages made from carbon composite fibers (found on the A350 and Boeing 787) with traditional aluminum coatings.
“This is the most catastrophic composite plane fire I can think of. On the other hand, that fuselage protected (passengers) from a terrible fire — it didn’t burn for a while and allowed everyone to get out,” said protection representative John Helmnel.
Haneda’s other three runways reopened Tuesday night, but about 140 flights were canceled on Wednesday alone due to the runway closure, transportation officials said. The airport was packed Wednesday as many tourists wrapped up their New Year’s trip, adding those who survived the fire and spent the afternoon at the airport or nearby hotels looking to replace flights.
Haneda is the busier of the two major airports serving the Japanese capital, with many foreign flights, and is preferred among travelers due to its proximity to the city’s central districts.
Tuesday’s crash was the first serious injury to an Airbus A350, one of the industry’s newest giant planes. It entered advertising service in 2015. Airbus said in a statement that it would send specialists to help the Japanese and French governments investigate the crash, and that the plane was delivered to Japan Airlines in late 2021.
JAL operates 16 A350-900 aircraft, according to its website. The twin-engine, twin-aisle A350 is used by a number of long-haul carriers. More than 570 aircraft are in service, according to Airbus.
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Yamaguchi reported from Kyoto, Japan. Associated Press writers Brian Melley in London; Adam Schreck in Osaka, Japan; Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark; and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
Foster Klug and Mari Yamaguchi, Associated Press