Passengers on Japan Airlines Flight 516 were buckled up and ready to land at
About two minutes later, the Airbus A350 that had traveled from
“I panicked and thought I may not be able to survive,” he told Japanese news agency
The A350 had collided with a much smaller coast guard plane that had received permission to approach the same runway but no takeoff clearance, according to a transcript of traffic control communications from the minutes before Tuesday's crash. Experts say neither the JAL pilot nor air traffic controllers may have realized the
With investigators focused on how traffic control communicated with the two planes during the busy holiday travel period, the big question to have emerged so far is why the coast guard plane was there.
The pilot of the coast guard plane, which was leaving on a mission to deliver relief goods to earthquake survivors in central
After their safe escape down emergency chutes, some passengers have shared details of their harrowing ordeal with the media.
Television footage of a survivor's video captured flight attendants repeatedly urging passengers to stay calm and to leave their belongings behind while making their way toward the closest of three frontward emergency exits that were usable. At first, passengers remained seated while waiting for attendants' directions, some lowering their heads to avoid the smoke filling the cabin.
"Please let us out!” a child shouts. In another footage, a number of passengers, including a woman holding a baby to her chest, ducks down and cautiously edges toward an exit while covering their mouths and eyes with towels.
“We could evacuate without panicking,” he told Jiji, thanking other passengers and crew members.
Investigators from the
Both the JAL and the coast guard pilots have said they had permission to use the runway where they collided. The coast guard has said officials were working to verify the coast guard pilot’s reported claim that he had received permission to take off.
JAL officials said the pilot of the A350 has reported not seeing the
According to the transcript, the control tower gave the JAL plane permission to land and noted that there was a departing plane without identifying it. Two other departing flights were standing by around that time. The JAL pilot acknowledged its instructions by repeating “Cleared to land,” according to the transcript.
The coast guard plane said it was taxiing to the same runway, and traffic control instructed it to proceed to the stop line before the runway. The controller noted the coast guard gets the priority among departing flights, and the pilot repeated he was moving to the stop line. “No. 1, thank you,” the pilot says.
Some experts think the use of the term No. 1 might have reflected the coast guard pilot's misunderstanding that he had permission to move on to the runway. Others suspect the coast guard members were in a rush to depart because of their supply delivery mission.
Two minutes later, there was a three-second pause, apparently indicating the time of the collision.
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