UPDATE - Crashed Japan Coast Guard plane landed at Tokyo runway sans permission: Data

UPDATES WITH STATEMENT FROM TRANSPORT MINISTRY; CHANGES HEADLINE, DECK

By Riyaz ul Khaliq

ISTANBUL (AA) – The plane belonging to the Japan Coast Guard did not have permission to land at Tokyo airport, resulting in collision with an aircraft of Japan Airlines, it emerged on Wednesday.

According to communications data between the planes and flight control released by Japan’s Transport Ministry, “the Japan Coast Guard plane that collided with a Japan Airline jetliner at Tokyo's Haneda airport did not have permission to enter the runway.”

However, the captain of the coast guard plane gave a different statement, telling investigators he was given a green light to enter the runway where the collision happened, Tokyo-based Kyodo News reported.

The collision between the two planes resulted in the death of at least five crew members and took place at around 5.49 p.m. on Tuesday (0849GMT) at Haneda airport in the capital Tokyo.

Only the captain among six crew of the coast guard plane survived, who told investigators that he “was given a green light to enter the runway where the collision happened.”

Investigators had got hold of flight and voice recorders of the coast guard aircraft but were still searching for that of the Japan Airlines plane.

A total of 379 passengers, including crew of Japan Airlines aircraft, had made a miraculous escape.

The coast guard plane was carrying relief material for the earthquake-hit people in Niigata province after Japan was hit by earthquakes of magnitude as high as 7.6 on Monday with its epicenter in Noto Peninsula and surrounding areas on the Sea of Japan coast. At least 64 people have died in Ishikawa province due to the tremors.

The plane collision triggered the closure of all four runways, three of which reopened late Tuesday. However, dozens of flights were canceled.

It took authorities more than eight hours to control flames on the Japan Airlines aircraft, produced by Airbus SAS with engines from UK’s Rolls-Royce and delivered in November 2021.