At Tokyo's Haneda Airport, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 airliner collided with a Japan Coast Guard's DHC-8 aircraft in a thrilling runway collision. Fortunately, all 379 passengers and crew on board were evacuated safely. Unfortunately, five crew members on board the Coast Guard aircraft were killed, and the pilot was also seriously injured.
How did this accident happen? We still have to wait for the results of the accident investigation, but we can analyze the possible causes based on some similar historical cases.
In 1991, at Los Angeles International Airport, an American Airlines Boeing 737-300 collided with a Sky West Airlines Metroliner turboprop while landing, killing more than 30 people. The cause of the accident was that the air traffic controller forgot that she still had a plane on the runway waiting for take-off and gave the other plane permission to land. Due to poor visibility at night, the American Airlines pilot did not notice the small plane on the runway and immediately hit it after touching the ground.
The accident prompted a series of procedural and technical improvements. For example, it is forbidden to leave an aircraft on the runway waiting for take-off at night or in low-visibility weather. At the same time, pilots and controllers have also increased their attention to the planes on the runway, avoiding aircraft landing and taking off on the same runway at the same time.
Was the accident at Haneda Airport due to a similar cause? Maybe, maybe not. It is also possible that the Airbus A350-900 aircraft strayed into the wrong parallel runway, or that the Coast Guard aircraft did not follow the controller's instructions. In any case, the accident reflects the importance of the human factor in aviation safety. We hope that the investigation of the accident will find out the truth as soon as possible so that effective measures can be taken to prevent similar tragedies from happening again.