Defense & Security

1971 Japan Plane Crash Prompted New Safety Rules; ANA-SDF Collision Led to Establishment of JTSB

Yomiuri Shimbun file photo
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry building in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo

By Tatsuya Hoshino / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

18:24 JST, January 31, 2025

The deadly midair collision that occurred on Wednesday night between an American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter near Washington, D.C., has left the aviation world in shock. In Japan, too, a similar accident once occurred when a civilian airliner collided with a Self Defense Force plane, sparking continued efforts to prevent a recurrence.

In 1971, an All Nippon Airways Co. aircraft collided with an SDF aircraft which was performing a training exercise over the town of Shizukuishi, Iwate Prefecture. All 162 passengers and crew on board the ANA aircraft were killed.

This accident led the former Transport Ministry to establish the Aircraft Accident Investigation Committee, now the Japan Transport Safety Board. As a measure to prevent further such accidents, the SDF began to set up training airspace which did not overlap with the routes and flight times of civilian aircraft.

SDF aircraft and helicopters also sometimes take off and land at civilian airports in Japan. The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is in principle responsible for air traffic control, except for at SDF and U.S. military airfields in Japan and some civilian airports. Even SDF aircraft are supposed to follow instructions issued by air traffic controllers.

According to the ministry, it is difficult for the Traffic Alert Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) installed on aircraft to function at low altitudes around airports. Therefore, when two aircraft are near each other in the vicinity of an airport, air traffic controllers instruct each pilot to avoid getting too close and then ask them for visual confirmation.

About the possible cause of the accident, Hiroyuki Kobayashi, a former Japan Airlines Co. captain and aviation critic, said, “Air traffic control involves interactions between people, so miscommunications are pretty common. The focus should be on what kind of air traffic control was being conducted and whether the altitude was high enough for TCAS to function.”