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The Japan Coast Guard plane that collided with a Japan Airlines jet at Tokyo's Haneda Airport had not been cleared by air traffic control to enter the runway for takeoff, according to communications released Wednesday by the Transportation Ministry. The captain of the coast guard craft said after Tuesday's collision that he had been given permission to enter the runway, suggesting the possibility of a misunderstanding that is likely to become a focal point of the investigation into the crash. "We have presented objective materials," Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito said Wednesday. "We will take every possible measure to prevent this from happening again. We will cooperate with the investigation by the Japan Transport Safety Board." The ministry said it believes the directions from air traffic control were appropriate. Air traffic control avoids allowing multiple planes on a single runway to avoid collisions, directing pilots to wait or giving them clearance to enter. Pilots normally repeat these directions to confirm them. The roughly four minutes of communications show air traffic control clearing the JAL jet to land on runway C at 5:44 p.m. At 5:45, the coast guard plane was told to taxi to a holding point. The coast guard pilot repeated the instruction, yet apparently entered the runway without any discussion with the control tower. The collision occurred about two minutes after the exchange with the tower. JAL said Wednesday that the pilot of its jet could not see the coast guard plane on the runway. The unusual decision to release the records to the public after just one day was likely intended to allay worries sparked by the collision. "Just looking at the released communications, the directions from air traffic control to the coast guard plane were appropriate, and the coast guard plane repeated them correctly," said Hiroyuki Kobayashi, an aviation analyst and former Japan Airlines pilot. "It looks increasingly likely that the coast guard side made some kind of assumption."<br/>

Pilots on a Japan Airlines plane engulfed in flames just after all 379 passengers and crew escaped were initially unaware the aircraft was on fire, according to fresh details reported Thursday. The airliner collided with a coast guard plane after landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday evening. All but one of the six people on the smaller aircraft were killed. A ball of flame erupted from the airliner before it came to a halt, with the fire beginning to spread from underneath the aircraft, footage shot by passengers showed. But according to national broadcaster NHK, the Japan Airlines pilots in the cockpit did not know about the fire until being informed by the cabin crew. The chief flight attendant, one of nine on board, reported to the cockpit that the plane was burning as the cabin crew needed permission to open the emergency exits, NHK reported. By this time, the cabin was filling with smoke and getting hotter, with babies crying and people begging for the doors to be opened, footage showed. In one video clip, a young voice can be heard shouting: "Please let us out. Please. Please open it. Just open it. Oh, god." There were eight emergency exits but the evacuation began from two slides at the front of the plane because of the fire. Only one other exit, at the rear left, was safe from the fire, but the intercom system was no longer functioning, so the cockpit could not give the go-ahead, JAL said. The crew in the back deemed it was urgent for the passengers to disembark from the back door and opened it anyway, as they are trained to do. It took 18 minutes to evacuate the entire plane, with the pilot the last person to set foot on the tarmac at 6:05 pm. Soon afterwards, the entire aircraft was an inferno and dozens of fire engines were trying to put out the blaze. That process ended up taking eight hours. "The smell of smoke was in the air, and the doors were not opening. So I think everyone panicked," a woman told reporters at the airport. "Honestly, I thought we wouldn't survive. So I texted my family and friends to say that my plane is burning, right now," another woman told broadcaster NHK. "Passengers seemed to have followed instructions in a textbook manner," Terence Fan, an airline industry expert from Singapore Management University told AFP, with others praising those on board for leaving their cabin bags behind. "This is exactly what evacuation policies are designed for -- the airframe itself is not meant to survive the blaze, ultimately." At least one pet dog and one cat had to be left on the plane and died, the airline said.<br/>

As smoke filled the cabin of Japan Airlines Flight 516 after its fiery landing in Tokyo on Tuesday, the sound of a child’s voice rose above the din of confusion onboard. “Please, let us off quickly!” the child pleaded, using a polite form of Japanese despite the fear washing over the passengers as flight attendants began shouting instructions. In the minutes that followed, even as the flames that would eventually engulf the JAL plane flickered outside the windows, order held. The attendants evacuated all 367 passengers through the three exit doors deemed safest, sending them down the emergency slides one by one, with no major injuries. Most left behind everything but the phones that would capture the harrowing scenes for the world. While a number of factors aided what many have called a miracle at Haneda Airport — a well-trained crew of 12; a veteran pilot with 12,000 hours of flight experience; advanced aircraft design and materials — the relative absence of panic onboard during the emergency procedure perhaps helped the most. “Even though I heard screams, mostly people were calm and didn’t stand up from their seats but kept sitting and waiting,” said Aruto Iwama, a passenger who gave a video interview to the newspaper The Guardian. “That’s why I think we were able to escape smoothly.” Anton Deibe, a 17-year-old passenger from Stockholm, agreed with that assessment, saying, “The cabin crew were very professional, but one could see even in their eyes that they were scared.” Still, he added, “no one ran ahead to save themselves. Everyone waited for instructions.” A day after the JAL fire, caused by a collision on the runway with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft, clues began to emerge about what led to the disaster, which killed five Coast Guard members on their way to help with earthquake relief in western Japan. In a transcript of communications between the air traffic control tower and both the JAL jet and the Coast Guard plane, it appeared that the commercial flight was given permission to land while the Coast Guard aircraft was told to “taxi to holding point” next to the runway. Officials were trying to learn why the Coast Guard plane ended up on the runway. Takuya Fujiwara, an investigator with the Japan Transport Safety Board, told reporters that the agency had collected the voice recorder — or so-called black box — from the Coast Guard aircraft but was still searching for the recorder from the Japan Airlines jet.<br/>

Ninety seconds. That is the amount of time Japan Airlines crew members are given in passenger evacuation training. The rigorous training paid off for the 12 JAL crew members who led all 367 passengers to safety after Flight 516 collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday. In an evacuation seen as a remarkable feat, all made it to safety in 18 minutes. The plane took off from New Chitose Airport near Sapporo at 4:15 p.m. on Tuesday, 25 minutes behind schedule. The flight was nearly full with passengers returning to Tokyo after vacationing in Hokkaido. An uneventful flight turned into a near-catastrophe an hour and half later. The plane crashed into the coast guard aircraft at 5:47 p.m. as it landed at Haneda. "I felt a bigger shock than usual and felt like my body was being pushed forward," a Tokyo university student said. From the window, she saw flames coming from near the engine. "What's going on?" a 28-year-old man asked a friend traveling with him. When he saw white smoke billowing into the cabin, he fell silent and covered his mouth with his hand. Hearing flight attendants discussing using the emergency exits, it dawned on him that something had gone terribly wrong. Crew members called out "We're going to be OK" and "Please calm down," but tensions heightened. Outside the window was a sea of red flames, and children were crying. Passengers were instructed to stay seated with their heads down until told otherwise, and some called on those around them to listen and comply. It took five to 15 minutes for the exits to open. Some crew members used megaphones to guide passengers because the PA system was not working. Five of the eight exits were deemed unusable because of the fire. Passengers eventually began to escape from the plane using evacuation slides from three exits: the left and right sides in the front of the plane, and on the left side behind the last row. The coast guard was notified of the accident around the same time, at 5:55 p.m., when the captain of the coast guard plane, who had managed to escape, reported to Haneda base. "The aircraft exploded on the runway. The condition of the other occupants is unknown," the captain said.<br/>

The wreckage of the Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda airport is testimony to the fierceness of the blaze that consumed it on Monday evening after it collided with a smaller plane. For investigators and aviation experts, the episode — and how all 379 people onboard the JAL flight managed to escape — is likely to yield important insights into the modern materials used to build many aircraft and the best ways of safely evacuating passengers in emergencies. The crash was the first loss of an Airbus A350, a model that entered service in 2015, and first complete destruction by fire of an airliner made largely from carbon fibre, a material increasingly used in aerospace. “The JAL A350 is the first hull loss of a composite airliner and the first by fire,” noted Scott Hamilton, head of consultancy and news site Leeham News. “Investigators will learn all kinds of lessons from the A350 accident.” Five of the six people onboard a smaller De Havilland Dash-8 Japan Coast Guard aircraft that collided with the JAL plane died. While the cause of the accident and the exact sequence of events remains under investigation by the Japan Transport Safety Board, police and other official agencies, experts said the evacuation of the 367 passengers and 12 crew from the JAL plane was remarkable. Early indications suggest the intercom system between the flight deck and the cabin had broken down following the collision while only three of the eight exit doors were available for evacuation given the fire on the outside of the aircraft. “It was a good outcome but the evacuation scenario was high risk,” said Ed Galea, a professor at the University of Greenwich in London, who specialises in fire safety. He noted that the nose was also angled downwards, making it harder to use the inflatable slides.  “In these circumstances, every second counts.” Modern aircraft are required to prove to regulators that they can evacuate all passengers and crew within 90 seconds using half the number of the available exits. Aircraft cabins are designed to prevent flames from spreading for as long as possible.  “The most important part, whether the plane is aluminium or carbon fibre, is that you have protection for many, many minutes from external heat,” said Bjorn Fehrm, an aeronautical engineer and an analyst at Leeham News. “In this case, the carbon fibre is giving that heat-shield protection.”<br/>

Japan Airlines estimated on Thursday that the collision of its flight JL516 with a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on Tuesday would result in an operating loss of about 15b yen ($104.81m). The loss of the aircraft will be covered by insurance, the company said, adding it was assessing the impact on its earnings forecast for the financial year ending March 31. Insurance industry sources have said U.S. insurer AIG was the lead insurer on a $130m "all-risks" policy for the two-year-old JAL Airbus A350 widebody jet that was destroyed by a fire after the collision at Tokyo's Haneda airport. It was the first-ever hull loss globally for the A350 model, according to Aviation Safety Network. The type, made largely from carbon composite, entered commercial service in 2015.<br/>

Airlines were forced to cancel over 300 flights following the collision between a Japan Coast Guard aircraft and a Japan Airlines passenger plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday evening. The crash forced the airport to shut down all runways for several hours on Tuesday evening, leading to cancellations of 226 flights to and from Haneda, affecting over 40,000 passengers. Despite the reopening of three runways on Wednesday, about 100 flights are still expected to be scrubbed on the day, disrupting the travel plans of 19,000 passengers. At around 6 p.m. local time on Tuesday, Japan Airlines (JAL) Flight 516, an Airbus A-350 that had flown from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido Prefecture was landing on Haneda's C-runway when the Coast Guard flight MA-722, a Bombardier Dash-8, collided with it, with both aircraft catching fire. Television footage on Tuesday showed a large burst of fire erupting from the side of the JAL plane as it taxied on a runway. The area around the wing then caught fire. The footage seen an hour later showed the blaze engulfed the aircraft. Five of the six crew members aboard the MA-722 were confirmed dead, while the captain who managed to escape earlier was severely injured. The Coast Guard plane, which belongs to the Haneda Airport base, was taxiing on the runway to transport relief goods for quake-hit areas in Niigata Prefecture after a series of temblors of up to 7.6 magnitude struck central Japan on Monday afternoon, according to Coast Guard spokesperson Yoshinori Yanagishima.<br/>

Japan Airlines (JAL) has announced that it will be offering free booking changes or refunds to passengers who have booked tickets on its international and domestic flights for dates up to March 31, 2024. This comes a day after Japan Airlines flight JL516 collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane while landing at Haneda International Airport in Tokyo on Jan 2. All 379 passengers and crew on board the Airbus A350 aircraft were evacuated safely from the aircraft, but five of the six coast guard crew members were killed in the collision. A Japan Times report states that the five who perished were coast guard members Yoshiki Ishida, 27; Wataru Tatewaki, 39; Nobuyuki Tahara, 41; Makoto Uno, 47; and Shigeaki Kato, 56. The coast guard plane’s 39-year-old pilot Genki Miyamoto, who was able to pull himself from the wreckage and report that his aircraft had exploded on the runway, remains severely injured. JAL said in a statement on its Facebook page and website: “We offer our deepest condolences to the families of the Japan Coast Guard personnel who lost their lives as a result and apologise for the distress and inconvenience caused to our passengers, their families, and those affected. The safety of our customers and employees is our No. 1 priority, and we are cooperating fully with the investigation.” Customers will have up to Jan 31 to apply for the booking changes and refunds, which are eligible only for tickets issued before Jan 2.<br/>

Four UK-based inspectors are being sent to Japan after a large passenger plane and a coastguard aircraft collided on a runway and burst into flames, killing five people. The accident happened on Tuesday evening when Japan Airlines flight 516 landed at at Tokyo’s Haneda airport as the coastguard plane – a Bombardier Dash-8 – was preparing to take off. All 379 passengers and crew on board the bigger aircraft were evacuated, but five of the six crew on the coastguard plane died. On Wednesday, the UK’s Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) said four of its inspectors with operational, engineering and recording data expertise were travelling to the Japanese capital to assist an investigation into the crash. The AAIB said: “The investigation is being led by the Japan Transport Safety Board, and the AAIB as state of manufacture of the Rolls-Royce engines fitted to the Airbus A350 has appointed an accredited representative.”<br/>

Cathay Pacific Airways is seeking proposals from Airbus SE and Boeing Co. for new aircraft to replace some of its older mid-sized widebody jets, rounding off the Hong Kong carrier’s biggest buying spree in a decade. “We are evaluating options for a versatile, mid-sized widebody aircraft that can undertake a range of missions and grow our passenger and cargo business,” Cathay said, confirming an earlier Bloomberg report. Both planemakers have been issued a so-called request for information for the potentially multi-billion dollar plane order, according to people familiar with the matter. The RFI is the first step in the process and no purchase is guaranteed, the people cautioned, who asked not to be identified discussing private deliberations. The carrier will likely have to choose between Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner and Airbus’s A330neo or the more-advanced A350 jet. Hong Kong’s biggest airline last year already ordered dozens of new aircraft, all from Airbus, as it readies an expansion of its home base at Hong Kong International Airport, with three runways becoming operational by late 2024. CEO Ronald Lam has said that the company has a two-year window to catch up after the pandemic put its expansion plans on hold. Lam has previously spoken of the need for replacement widebody jets that fly exclusively around Asia. Of these, it has 43 Airbus A330s for regional flights, and the carrier has earmarked an unspecified number for refurbishment by 2026, lowering the need to spend so much on new planes. “We have clear and substantial investment plans to enhance our customer experience offering, including new aircraft, new cabin products, new lounges, and more,” Cathay said. In the most recent cycle of Cathay’s aircraft dealings, Airbus has won in every major deal. The regional widebody order will conclude the airline’s largest cycle of investments in new aircraft since 2010 to 2013.<br/>

Passengers on a Melbourne-bound flight from Christchurch spent about three-and-a-half hours in the sky only to remain on this side of the Tasman as a result of a mechanical issue. Qantas flight QF132 left at about 6:13am on Thursday and turned around nearly an hour and a half later, when it began heading north, a FlightRadar24 map shows. At about 7:50am, the Boeing 737-838 began circling just south of Raglan at less than half its top speed earlier in the flight. The circling continued for about 25 minutes, eventually widening, before the plane carried on to Auckland, where it landed safely just after 9:40am. The flight from Christchurch to Melbourne typically takes about three-and-a-half hours. Stuff understands the flight diverted to Auckland as a precautionary measure to check the mechanical issue. The aircraft has been inspected by engineers and passengers are set to depart on the same plane on Thursday afternoon.<br/>