Miracle landing in Japan

From ABC 43_minutes ago: "The warning lights that tell pilots whether a runway is clear were not working at the Haneda Airport the night a Japan Airlines plane caught fire after colliding with a coast guard aircraft, according to official aviation data.

A NOTAM message, a notice containing information essential to pilots and other personnel concerned with flight operations, issued on Dec. 27 alerted pilots that the light system was down for the foreseeable future.

It is unclear whether the the lack of warning lights on the runway played a role in how the incident unfolded. The investigation is ongoing."
 
From USA TODAY: "Authorities said Wednesday that air traffic control cleared a Japan Airlines plane to land at Tokyo's Haneda Airport before it collided with a coast guard aircraft that had been instructed to stay off the runway."
 
If the Coastie bird was in the takeoff position on the runway and not moving it did not collide with the JAL bird. I would think the JAL bird would have seen the Coastie sitting there.


The coastie could have been holding short of departure runway and cleared to taxi into position. Keep in mind, once you cross the MDA and depending on the aircraft, conditions etc the commercial bird is going to have a 1-1/2 to 3 degree nose up AOA limiting the flight crews' vertical vision on what is below.
Anyway you cut it, it's a bad situation and reminds of the LAX occurrence from many years and a 73' landed on a commuter that was holding in position. The ATC Gal' that made the mistake left the profession and I feel sorry for her knowing that she will live with that mistake for the rest of her life.
 
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Disciplined people, following instructions efficiently, in a timely manner. Joe

If you know the Japanese culture, it's easy to understand - very disciplined and organized. Some of the footage I saw showed Japanese passengers remining calm, cool and collected while videoing the raging inferno outside the aircraft.

Here's the most detailed info I've found. This guy, a commercial 777 pilot, is very good at analyzing aircraft accidents.

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_sQ1L_xPmo[/ame]
 
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If you know the Japanese culture, it's easy to understand - very disciplined and organized. Some of the footage I saw showed Japanese passengers remining calm, cool and collected while videoing the raging inferno outside the aircraft...
From the WaPo article:
A flight attendant for an international airline headquartered in Asia, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, described the incident as a "model for a perfect evacuation."

Having both "well-trained crew and well-behaved passengers" is essential to successfully evacuating an aircraft in an emergency situation, he said.

Eyewitnesses described experienced flight attendants directing relatively calm passengers. "When the plane stopped, in less than one minute, the cabin was full of smoke," Aruto Iwama told Reuters news agency. "There was screaming, but most people were calm and stayed in their seats, sitting and waiting. I think that's why we were able to escape so smoothly."

Another passenger, Satoshi Yamake, told Reuters that "the flight attendants told us to stay calm and instructed us to get off the plane." Just 10 to 15 minutes after the passengers had moved away from the plane, he said, the whole aircraft was engulfed in flames...

The fact it was a domestic Japanese flight may have made the evacuation process simpler, the flight attendant told The Washington Post; most of the passengers would have shared the same language, making it easy to understand and comply with instructions. Japanese passengers are also likely to be well-trained for hazard and evacuation because of the preparation for natural disasters common in the country...

"It is absolutely not common for passengers to comply with instructions, though some countries do better than some of the others, mostly based on … their sense of crisis awareness," the flight attendant said.

But flight safety experts say a "really significant" factor that helped the evacuation is relevant to passengers from all countries — the fact that people appeared to have left without taking their luggage.

In most accidents, especially those in Europe and the United States, Galea said, passengers try to take their luggage with them. In footage of this flight, Galea said, "I didn't see a single person with their luggage, not a single person."

Aviation safety consultant Adrian Young said most passengers reflexively reach for their bags as soon as they land. But this would delay other passengers' escape by valuable seconds...​
 
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