You may have heard about a plane crash in Japan circulating in the news lately. In this article, I will discuss the crash and explain why it happened to hopefully reassure you that planes are still completely safe. Crashes like this are extremely rare, but worthy of discussion.
On Wednesday, January 3rd, there was a plane crash in Tokyo, Japan, that was mostly a result of miscommunication. A Japan Airlines A350-900 aircraft went up in flames after flying into runway 34 of Haneda airport at 5:46 pm. Though the crash involved two planes, only five people were killed out of the 385 people involved. The Japanese Airliner landed on top of a smaller coast guard plane with six people inside: But why? The crew from the A350 stated that they were cleared by air traffic control to land on runway 34 and did confirm this multiple times. The coast guard plane was also reported to have received permission to approach the same runway but had not yet received takeoff clearance. As a result of (most likely) incorrect communication on behalf of air traffic control, the coast guard plane, which was on its way to provide disaster relief for survivors of the earthquake in central Japan, sat on the runway awaiting takeoff clearance for over three minutes. Within those three minutes, the pilot of the coast guard plane did not check back in with air traffic control as is recommended for pilots sitting on the runway for longer than about a minute and a half. Some people suspect that the pilot did not understand the instructions of air traffic control, though this has not yet been confirmed or denied. Since this collision took place in the evening when it was dark, the airliner was unable to see the much smaller coast guard plane on the runway when they began their
landing, and the pilot was never instructed to fly around or abort. The plane was also never detected on the technology of the A350 because the coast guard plane was not entirely up-to-date with its own.
Though five of the six people aboard the coast guard plane died in the crash, all 379 passengers and crew members, including 12 children under seven, from the A350 safely evacuated the burning plane in less than 18 minutes. When the plane landed and immediately burst into flames, the crew instructed all the passengers to stay calm and evacuate the plane without taking any of their belongings. Everyone obeyed the crew’s orders, leaving their suitcases and getting out as quickly as possible, resulting in a flawless evacuation. In the end, 13 people requested medical attention, mostly due to the smoke intake, and only one person suffered a visible injury of any kind.
The cause of the crash was the result of miscommunication and mistakes by both the coast guard plane and the air traffic control. Though most of the people aboard the coast guard plane unfortunately passed away due to the accident, the evacuation of the Airbus 350 is one that should be celebrated. As I mentioned earlier, plane crashes are not common. There are roughly ten commercial plane crashes each year out of over 20 million flights and roughly 6 fatal injuries each year out of 74.6 million passenger carried each month. Just remember that if you do find yourself in a plane crash, exit the plane without your belongings – It just might save your life.