Off the wire
• China environment communique exposes poor air, groundwater quality  • China reiterates maintenance of peace, stability on South China Sea  • China's lottery sales up 3.4 pct in April  • Turkey trains Iraqi national guards in IS fight: FM  • Foreign exchange rates in Singapore  • Singapore stocks close 0.14 pct lower  • Feature: Chinese brands take on Kenya's mobile phone market  • Roundup: Greece optimistic about debt repayment arrangements, several more days needed for deal  • Australians learning encryption at social parties  • Gold price closes lower in Hong Kong  
You are here: 　 Home

Triple air disaster narrowly avoided in Okinawa as military chopper takes off against orders

Xinhua, June 4, 2015 Adjust font size:

The safety of Japan's Air Self- Defense Force's (ASDF) helicopters and the protocols they are supposed to follow has once again been brought into serious question following two extremely dangerous incidents on Wednesday at Naha Airport in Okinawa, southern Japan, the transport ministry confirmed Thursday.

According to ministry officials, an ASDF CH-47 transport helicopter flew in front of the path of an All Nippon Airways' Boeing 737 jet at a Naha Airport runway on Wednesday afternoon, after the helicopter pilot took off despite not being given clearance to do so.

Air traffic controllers at Naha's commercial airport said the pilot of the CH-47 chopper, which was carrying seven SDF personnel at the time, took off against orders, apparently believing clearance given to another aircraft to take off was meant for him.

The pilot, following the huge lapse in judgement, will likely be indicted for violating air traffic control orders, officials from the transport ministry said Thursday.

In what could have been a devastating collision, the Boeing 737 jet carrying a full compliment of 83 passengers and crew members, was moving at full power, accelerating down the runway to take off, when the CH-47 helicopter suddenly crossed its path.

The jet was forced to apply emergency measures to abort its takeoff; applying its emergency brakes and slamming the engines into reverse thrust to avoid the chopper.

But just seconds later, according to the transport ministry, an approaching Japan TransOcean Air Boeing 737 passenger jet perilously landed on the same runway as the aborted ANA flight has been told to abort its landing and retry following further orders.

The TransOcean Air plane was carrying 44 on board and touched down before the ANA plane had any chance of moving, officials said, adding that the chance of a fatal collision was extremely high with just 400 meters separating the two planes.

Investigations are currently underway by both the air traffic controllers and the transport ministry as to why the CH-47 transport helicopter defied orders and similarly why the TransOcean Air Boeing 737 touched down, after having been told to abort its landing under emergency advisement.

Three investigators from the Japan Transport Safety Board have been deployed to the scene of the near-fatal collisions to find out exactly what happened between the ASDF chopper and the two planes at the commercial airport that share its runway with military craft, in Japan's most southwest prefecture, that hosts the bulk of Japan's U.S. military bases.

The near-miss on the 3,000-meter runway happened at about 1:25 p.m. on Wednesday, according to transport ministry officials and, according to pundits close to the matter, has added to ongoing municipal concerns that the concentration of both Japanese and U.S. military hardware on the tiny island of Okinawa is disproportionate, with the current mishap likely to feed into a broader impasse regarding Okinawa's base hosting burdens and the relocation of a controversial U.S. Marines' airbase within the island. Endi