Transport safety experts in Tokyo are searching for the voice recorder of a Japan Airlines plane that collided with coast guard aircraft on Haneda airport runway.
A large passenger plane and a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft collided on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport/ AFP
Transport safety experts in Tokyo meticulously combed through the blackened wreckage of a Japan Airlines (JAL) aircraft on Friday in an attempt to find the voice recorder, which is essential to determining the reason for the plane's collision on the Haneda airport runway with a tiny coast guard aircraft, stated a report in the Associated Press.
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According to the report, JAL started clearing debris with heavy gear with the goal of moving some wreckage to a hangar so that the runway could be used again for operations.
The voice data recorder was located after six specialists from the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) carefully searched through the wrecked Airbus A350-900 on the runway. To learn more about the events leading up to Tuesday's deadly accident, the JTSB has concurrently obtained voice and flight data recorders from the Coast Guard's Bombardier Dash-8 as well as a flight data recorder from the JAL aircraft, the AP report added.
In the face of flames engulfing JAL Flight 516, all 379 passengers safely evacuated within eighteen minutes; nevertheless, the Coast Guard plane's captain lived, but five crew members died.
Reportedly, recent discoveries from NHK television's monitoring camera footage at Haneda airport suggest that the Coast Guard aircraft stopped for forty seconds on the runway before the crash, which happened soon after the JAL airliner landed and resulted in a fiery hit.
According to information from the transcript of air traffic control, the Coast Guard aircraft was told to hold ahead of the runway so that it could depart first. But no more permission was given for it to use the runway. The Coast Guard pilot reported that he was struck just after takeoff clearance when the engines were starting up, the Associated Press report stated.
After similarly interviewing pilots and other attendants, the investigation team plans to speak with seven JAL cabin attendants. As required by international aviation safety laws, Airbus officials will also participate in the probe, the report stated.
The Coast Guard plane was to depart to the earthquake-hit region with relief materials; the latest update said that the earthquake has claimed 94 lives so far and over 240 persons are still missing. A report in ANI, citing Kyodo news agency, stated the authorities have decisively doubled the number of Self-Defence forces personnel participating in earthquake rescue operations to 4,600.
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