Japan Airlines A350 Accident At Haneda Airport, What We Know
On the evening of January 2, 2024, two aircraft collided at Tokyo Haneda Airport (HND), leading to a major accident with fatalities. In the few days since this incident, a lot of details have emerged about what happened & it almost feels like the more we know, the more questions there are about how something like this could happen. There are some pretty surprising details emerging
This incident happened at 5:47PM on Tuesday, January 2, 2024, and involves two aircraft:
- A roughly two-year-old Japan Airlines Airbus A350-900 with registration code JA13XJ; was operating flight JL516, which was just landing on Haneda Airport runway 34R after completing an 80-minute flight from Sapporo
- A roughly 16-year-old Japan Coast Guard Bombardier DHC-8-300 with registration code JA722A; was supposed to be departing Haneda Airport runway 34R right after the Japan Airlines A350 landed
In short, the two aircrafts were on the runway at the same time & collided. The below video shows the explosion that occurred from the impact, as the A350 continued barrelling down the runway on fire (while you can barely see the much smaller turboprop)
On the Japan Airlines A350, all 359 passengers and 20 crew managed to evacuate. While there were no human fatalities, at least 17 people from the A350 were injured, and it’s not clear how serious. Japan airlines was carrying 2 animals in the cargo hold, unfortunately they all died.
6 people were onboard the Coast Guard aircraft & tragically 5 of them lost their lives while one is in critical condition. May the souls of those who perished find peace.
It’s absolutely shocking to look at what was left of the Japan Airlines A350 the morning after the accident, after the fire raged on for hours. It’s such a testament to how well built aircraft are, that everyone could safely evacuate the A350 despite there being an impact at over 100+ miles per hour, plus this plane ultimately burning to the point of a hull loss.
This accident represents the first-ever hull loss of an Airbus A350, as well as the only hull loss of a Japan Airlines aircraft in the last 40 or so years.
Japan Airlines has a fleet of A350-900s that exclusively operate domestic flights, and they’re in a high density configuration with 369 seats. The airline has 16 of these Airbus jets, with an additional two jets on order. This is separate from the A350-1000 that Japan Airlines will soon start flying, as its new flagship long haul jet.
Japan Airlines’ A350s evacuation video
Looking at video footage of the evacuation, I’m impressed that most people left their carry-on items behind, as they’re supposed to. That can be the difference between life and death, and it’s where Japan’s culture of following rules comes in handy. There’s video footage from inside the aircraft during the evacuation, and as you’d expect, it’s scary.
- The emergency announcement system stopped working during the evacuation, so flight attendants had to scream and use megaphones as per cabin crew training in order to communicate with passengers and one another
- Only three of the eight emergency exits were used for the evacuation, as the crew evaluated which exits could safely be used based on the location of the fire
- While the A350 is certified to be evacuated within 90 seconds, the plane only started to be evacuated seven minutes after it came to a stop, and the evacuation was completed 11 minutes after that, a full 18 minutes after it came to a stop, not sure why it was so delayed
The crew deserves credit for getting everyone off the plane safely. They evacuated a burning A350 with no fatalities using only 3 exits. As per crew member training they were the last people to evacuate the aircraft & the captain apparently passed through the entire cabin to make sure there was no one left behind before he got off the plane himself. Kudos to Japan Airlines training, well executed evacuation.
What caused the accident at Tokyo Haneda Airport?
Investigations involving a hull loss can take months or longer as there’s a lot to learn from these situations.
The arriving Japan Airlines A350 had received landing clearance for runway 34R, so the plane had permission to land. Meanwhile the departing Japan Coast Guard DHC-8 had only been given clearance to taxi to runway 34R and hold short, and not to enter it. Specifically, here’s the relevant transmission:
Air traffic controller: “JA722A, Tokyo tower, good evening, number one, taxi to holding point C5.” Pilot: “Taxi to holding point C5, JA722A, number one, thank you.”
The pilot of the Coast Guard plane confirmed the instruction to wait at the holding point, so one has to wonder how the plane ended up on the runway. This isn’t a case where the controller gave incorrect instructions, or where instructions weren’t read back correctly. Maybe the pilots got thrown off by being told they were “number one,”
The most shocking part of this was that the Coast Guard plane wasn’t just taxiing onto the runway as the Japan Airlines A350 was landing, it had been sitting on the runway for over 40 seconds, before it was rear-ended by the landing Japan Airlines A350. You can hear some of the ATC audio and see a depiction of that below.
Did no one realize something was off, whether it was the air traffic controllers, pilots of the Japan Airlines A350, or pilots of the Japan Coast Guard aircraft?
There is one other major factor that plays into this. The Haneda Airport warning lights that indicate if a runway is clear were out of service at the time of this accident. This has been the case since December 27, 2023, so it started several days before the incident. There was a NOTAM about this (this is a notice to pilots that they’re supposed to read prior to operating a flight), so it’s something pilots should have known.
The Japan Coast Guard aircraft was about to perform a flight to deliver aid following Japan’s earthquake. One has to wonder if the pilots were rushed and exhausted, didn’t fully read the NOTAMs, and then interpreted being “number one” plus the lack of runway warning lights as an indication that they were cleared for takeoff?
Bottom line
As this accident is investigated the big question is why this happened. Why did the Japan Coast Guard plane taxi onto the runway without permission? Why didn’t anyone notice that a plane was sitting on the runway for over 40 seconds without permission? Why did it take so long for the plane to be evacuated?