TOKYO, May 25 (NNN-NHK) – Japan’s transport ministry, carried out an inspection at a Japan Airlines (JAL) office at Haneda airport in Tokyo, yesterday, following a recent string of incidents involving the company’s aircraft, while taxiing, local media reported.
Four officials of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism entered the office, to conduct an extraordinary audit, involving hearings to assess the airline’s responses to the incidents and its safety management system, Kyodo News reported.
The ministry will instruct the JAL to rectify any problems, if current arrangements are found to be lacking, it said.
On Thursday, the tip of the wing on a JAL aircraft, carrying about 300 passengers and crew bumped the wing tip of another JAL passenger plane, on the apron at Haneda Airport.
The incident is the latest in a series of recent airfield collisions. On May 10 at Fukuoka airport, in south-western Japan, a JAL plane crossed a stop line leading to a runway without the control tower’s clearance, forcing another plane to abandon takeoff.
A JAL passenger jet collided with a Japan Coast Guard plane at Haneda Airport on Jan 2, killing five of the six crew on the Coast Guard plane.– NNN-NHK
