poopkins , 6 months ago (edited 6 months ago)

Copying my post from another thread:

JAL flight 516 (registration JA13XJ) Airbus A350-941 from Sapporo to Tokyo’s Haneda Airport collided while landing with a coast guard aircraft JA722A Bombardier DHC-8-315Q MPA “Dash-8” that belonged to Haneda Air Base, which was awaiting departure to Niigata with aid following the New Year’s Day Earthquake.

The Washington Post reports:

All 367 passengers and 12 crew members escaped the passenger plane, while five people on the coast guard plane were still unaccounted for, NHK reported.

The pilot of the coast guard aircraft had evacuated and contacted officials, but the other five crew members were unaccounted for and the condition of the aircraft was unknown.

CNN reports that 17 passengers were injured and that the coast guard pilot remains in critical condition.

Further insights

This marks the first hull loss of an A350. The Dash-8 involved, JA722A, also called under its alternative registration, MA722 “Mizunagi.”

Additional notes from planespotters.net:

In the collision, the nose gear of the Airbus A350 collapsed and the engines caught fire whilst the aircraft came to a stop. The right hand engine was unable to be shut down and continued to run during the evacuation of the passengers. The aircraft has been fully engulfed in fire and has been completely destroyed.

Videos and photos suggest that three slides were used in the evacuation (both front, rear port side):
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/2fa2987c-edc8-4dd1-86fb-02243ec780db.jpeg https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/27e2a9b3-5fce-4bc3-989e-4722e4bd8cd2.jpeg

A video on Twitter shows the number two engine still running and spraying sparks, which is likely why the rear starboard side slide was not used.

Smoke was present in the cabin during evacuation.

Speculation on causes

An interesting observation is the nose cone damage on the A350 and what appears to be crushed remains of the Dash-8:
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/cb489826-b4b8-4543-8cf8-cdae438d6887.jpeg

One user on Twitter writes:

I’ve been listening to the air traffic control [~15:00] immediately before the accident between JAL Flight 516 and JA722A (Japan Coast Guard aircraft) at Haneda, and at least as far as I can hear, two minutes before the accident, the Japan Coast Guard aircraft was told, “JA722A No.1 Taxi to Holding Point -1” was issued from tower control, but it appears that permission to enter the runway was not issued until the accident.

ATC communication is captioned in this video.

In the video from the original post it’s noteworthy that the queued up aircraft DAL276 and JAL545 are not visible, which suggests the collision happened further down the runway from C-1, likely closer to holding point C-5. A user on Twitter remarks that “the air traffic control instructions were C-1 [and] because [JA722A] misheard it, it was holding short at C-5.”

From here, there are two possibilities:

1. JA722A entered onto the runway from C-5 without ATC clearance.
2. ATC, unaware that JA722A was positioned at C-5 and assuming them to be holding at C-1, may have cleared them to enter the runway as JAL516 had passed C-1 at this point. This might not be on ATC recordings due to overlapping transmissions.

While the following image showing the runway incursion point is circulating, there is currently no concrete evidence to support either theory:
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/f244345b-ee93-44e6-a05b-529790b51345.jpeg

Here I’ve highlighted both holding points C-1 and C-5 on the HND airport diagram:
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/e9c8946f-096d-4198-84d1-81292de8e0fb.png

JAL 516 touched down on 34R, and while flightradar24 doesn’t show any aircraft on the runway ahead of them, it should be noted that JA722A was not equipped with a modern ADS-B transponder:
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/922da67d-4954-4cc4-b47b-3ecdcfa5f969.jpeg

If JA722A (which cannot be tracked by flightradar24) was instructed to hold at C-1, it’s peculiar that DAL276 is instead holding at that position:
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/7f535afd-b314-403d-b47e-4cd2bd5b46be.png

Please remember not to jump to conclusions as we do not have all the facts yet.