To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page.
This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies.
Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
The Yomiuri Shimbun Haneda Airport’s Runway C (foreground), which has resumed operations, and the control tower. Photo taken Monday from a Yomiuri Shimbun helicopter.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
11:24 JST, January 9, 2024
Air traffic controllers at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport have ceased to inform aircraft of their takeoff order, such as “number one” and “number two,” from Monday, following the collision between a Japan Airlines plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on the runway of Haneda Airport in Tokyo. The Yomiuri Shimbun learned from sources at the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
The move is part of emergency measures to ensure safety, and the ministry plans to expand it to all domestic airports in Japan in the future.
The air traffic controller in charge at the time of the accident explained to Japan Transportation Safety Board that the Coast Guard aircraft was given priority over other planes as the first to depart. While several commercial aircrafts were waiting around Runway C, the controller told the Coast Guard aircraft, which was scheduled to fly to support disaster-stricken areas in the Noto Peninsula, that it was “number one,” meaning the first to take off.
