Measures to prevent aircraft from making runway incursions may not have been suitably shared with the Japan Coast Guard, whose plane was involved in a deadly collision at Tokyo's Haneda airport, information revealed by the transport ministry suggested Thursday.
In the Jan. 2 collision between the coast guard's aircraft and a Japan Airlines jetliner, experts have pointed out the possibility that the former mistakenly entered the runway. Five of six people aboard the coast guard plane died and its captain was severely injured, while all 379 passengers and crew on the commercial aircraft escaped.
Following a series of unapproved entries by aircraft at Japanese airports, including Osaka, Kansai and Chubu between September and November of 2007, the ministry and relevant parties launched a team to prevent recurrences, but the coast guard was not part of it.
An official at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism said it is unclear why the coast guard was not on the team but added, "The team's activities were obvious and clear for all pilots, and information must have been conveyed to the coast guard."
A task force established by the ministry formulated preventive measures, including those to avert miscommunication between air traffic controllers and pilots, and the team followed up on how the measures were implemented.
Launched in April 2008 and joined by major passenger transportation businesses, the Scheduled Airlines Association of Japan and the Japan Aircraft Pilot Association, the team ended its service in March 2011, according to the ministry.
In the recent collision, a tower traffic controller called the coast guard plane "No. 1," suggesting the aircraft, which was on a relief mission to quake-hit central Japan, was given the highest priority for takeoff, and instructed it to proceed to the stopping point before the runway.
The ministry has since instructed airports across the country to stop telling pilots the order in which planes are assigned for takeoff, as they can be misunderstood by pilots as permission to depart.
Based on the preventive measures formulated in 2008, English words and expressions that can be misheard or misunderstood were collected and analyzed, since communication between air traffic controllers and pilots is conducted in English.
At the Osaka international airport, "STOP" signs were installed at 15 locations on taxiing ways before runways to alert pilots against unapproved entries.
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