General News

Families of Japan Coast Guard Crew Members Mourn at Haneda Crash Site; 1 Year Anniversary Marked with Prayers, Moment of Silence

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
Work to remove debris is underway after a fatal collision between a Japan Coast Guard aircraft and a Japan Airlines plane at Haneda Airport in Tokyo on Jan. 5, 2024.

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:30 JST, January 3, 2025

The families of the five Japan Coast Guard members who died in an aircraft collision on Jan. 2, 2024, mourned the deceased at an area near Haneda Airport’s Runway C, where the crash occurred, one year after the collision on Thursday.

A bus carrying nearly 30 family members of the JCG crew headed for the airport grounds shortly after 5 p.m. Mourners placed flowers about 100 meters from where the aircraft was prior to the collision.

Prayers were offered at 5:47 p.m., the time of the crash.

Senior JCG officials, other JCG members and airport staff also observed a moment of silence on an observation deck at the airport.

At the same time, passenger planes carrying New Year holidaymakers were taking off and landing on Runway C on Thursday.

On Jan. 2, 2024, the JCG aircraft carrying relief supplies for those affected by the Noto Peninsula Earthquake collided with a Japan Airlines plane and burned down. All the crew members on the JCG aircraft were killed except the 40-year-old captain.