Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

Boeing 747-400 The Boeing 747-400 is a large, long-range wide-body airliner produced by Boeing Commercial Airplanes, an advanced variant of the initial Boeing 747. The "Advanced Series 300" was announced at the September 1984 Farnborough Airshow, targeti ...

Haneda Airport , officially , and sometimes called as Tokyo Haneda Airport or Haneda International Airport , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Narita International Airport (NRT). It serves as the primary ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

Naha Airport is a second class airport located west of the city hallAIS Japan
in

Okinawa is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan. Okinawa Prefecture is the southernmost and westernmost prefecture of Japan, has a population of 1,457,162 (as of 2 February 2020) and a geographic area of 2,281 Square kilometre, km2 (880 sq mi). ...

, narrowly avoided a

mid-air collision In aviation, a mid-air collision is an accident in which two or more aircraft come into unplanned contact during flight. Owing to the relatively high velocities involved and the likelihood of subsequent impact with the ground or sea, very sever ...

with Japan Airlines Flight 958, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40 en route from Gimhae International Airport,

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, to

Narita International Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airpo ...

,

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the n ...

. The event became known in Japan as the . The incident was attributed to errors made by Air Traffic Controller (ATC)

trainee A trainee is commonly known as an individual taking part in a trainee program within an organization after having graduated from higher and technical courses. A trainee is an official employee of the firm that is being trained to the job they we ...

and trainee supervisor . The incident caused Japanese authorities to call upon the

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

to take measures to prevent similar incidents from occurring.

Flight information

The Boeing 747-446 Domestic, registration JA8904, was operating Flight 907 from Tokyo Haneda International Airport to

Naha Airport is a second class airport located west of the city hallAIS Japan
in

McDonnell Douglas DC-10-40, registration JA8546, was operating Flight 958 from Gimhae International Airport to

Narita International Airport Narita International Airport ( ja, 成田国際空港, Narita Kokusai Kūkō) , also known as Tokyo-Narita, formerly and originally known as , is one of two international airports serving the Greater Tokyo Area, the other one being Haneda Airpo ...

with 237 passengers and 13 crew.Blame pinned on air traffic controllers
" ''

Japan Times ''The Japan Times'' is Japan's largest and oldest English-language daily newspaper. It is published by , a subsidiary of News2u Holdings, Inc.. It is headquartered in the in Kioicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo. History ''The Japan Times'' was launched by ...

''. Saturday February 3, 2001. Retrieved on December 11, 2009. Flight 958 was commanded by 45-year-old pilot . According to the flight plan, both aircraft were supposed to pass each other while apart.

Mid-air incident

The mid-air incident occurred as

flight attendant A flight attendant, also known as steward/stewardess or air host/air hostess, is a member of the aircrew aboard commercial flights, many business jets and some government aircraft. Collectively called cabin crew, flight attendants are prima ...

s began to serve drinks onboard Flight 907.JAL planes almost collide
," ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are ...

''. Retrieved on December 11, 2009. JA8904's ' Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS)' sounded 20 minutes after its departure as the jet climbed towards . The DC-10, JA8546, cruised at . The TCAS on both aircraft functioned correctly, a "CLIMB" instruction was annunciated for Flight 907; however, the flight crew received contradicting instructions from the flight controller at the

Tokyo Area Control Center is an air traffic control center located in the Namiki area of Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, Japan in the Greater Tokyo Area. The center is north of the special wards of Tokyo. As of 2001 the center controlled airspace in the Kantō, Jōet ...

in Tokorozawa,

Saitama Prefecture is a landlocked prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Saitama Prefecture has a population of 7,338,536 (1 January 2020) and has a geographic area of 3,797 km2 (1,466 sq mi). Saitama Prefecture borders Tochigi Prefecture ...

. Flight 907 followed an order to descend issued by the flight controller while Flight 958 descended as instructed by the TCAS, meaning that the planes remained on a collision course. The trainee for the aerospace sector, 26-year-oldControllers blamed for near-miss
" '' BBC''. Friday February 2, 2001. Retrieved on December 11, 2009. ,Court finds air traffic controllers not guilty over 2001 near miss
" ''Kyodo World News Service.'' handled ten other flights at the time of the near miss. Hachitani intended to tell Flight 958 to descend. Instead, at 15:54, he told Flight 907 to descend. When the trainee noticed that JAL 958 cruised at a level altitude instead of descending, the trainee asked JAL 958 to turn right; the message did not get through to the JAL 958 pilot. The trainee's supervisor, , ordered "JAL 957" to climb, intending to tell JAL 907 to climb. There was not a JAL flight 957 in the sky at the moment of the incident, but it can be inferred that by "957" she meant flight 907. The aircraft avoided collision using evasive maneuvers once they were in visual proximity, and passed within about of each other. An unidentified passenger told

NHK , also known as NHK, is a Japanese public broadcaster. NHK, which has always been known by this romanized initialism in Japanese, is a statutory corporation funded by viewers' payments of a television license fee. NHK operates two terrestr ...

, "I have never seen a plane fly so close. I thought we were going to crash." Alex Turner, a passenger on Flight 907 and a student at

Kadena High School is an American high school on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa City, Okinawa Prefecture, Japan, and is administered by the Department of Defense Education Activity. Opened in 1981, the school is for English-speaking American military subordinates. It ...

, estimated that the avoidance maneuver lasted for two seconds. Seven passengers and two crew members of the 747 sustained serious injuries; additionally, 81 passengers and 10 crew members reported minor injuries. Some unbelted passengers, flight attendants, and drink carts hit the ceiling, dislodging some ceiling tiles. The maneuver threw one boy across four rows of seats. Most of the injuries to occupants consisted of bruising. The maneuvers broke the leg of a 54-year-old woman."Shigeyoshi Kimura, Associated Press Writer (January 31, 2001)
"At least 35 airline passengers injured in near miss"
In addition, a drink cart spilled, scalding some passengers. No passengers on the DC-10 sustained injuries. Flight 907, with the 747's cabin bearing minor damage, returned to Haneda, landing at 16:45.

Aftermath

By 18:00 on February 1, eight Flight 907 passengers remained hospitalized, while 22 injured passengers had been released. Two passengers remained hospitalized at , while two other passengers remained hospitalized at . In addition, the following hospitals each had one passenger remaining: ,

Kitasato University is a private medical university headquartered in Shirokane, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. The head of the university is on the Shirokane campus, neighboring the original Kitasato Institute, the first private medical research facility in Japan which was ...

, , and .JL907便事故について
(Japanese). ''

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

''. Retrieved on December 25, 2008. All injured passengers recovered. JAL sent apology letters to the passengers on the 747; injured passengers directly received messages, and uninjured passengers received messages via the mail. In its report on the accident, published in July 2002, the

Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission The was a commission belonging to Japan′s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Commission members are appointed by the transport minister to research causes of aircraft and railway accidents and to suggest improvements to prevent ...

called on the

International Civil Aviation Organization The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO, ) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that coordinates the principles and techniques of international air navigation, and fosters the planning and development of international a ...

(ICAO) to make it clear that TCAS advisories should always take precedence over ATC instructions. A similar recommendation was made three months later by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

's accident investigation body (the BFU) in light of the

Überlingen mid-air collision Überlingen is a German city on the northern shore of Lake Constance (Bodensee) in Baden-Württemberg near the border with Switzerland. After the city of Friedrichshafen, it is the second largest city in the Bodenseekreis (district), and a c ...

. ICAO accepted these recommendations and amended its regulations in November 2003."Deadly Crossroads," ''

Mayday Mayday is an emergency procedure word used internationally as a distress signal in voice-procedure radio communications. It is used to signal a life-threatening emergency primarily by aviators and mariners, but in some countries local organiz ...

'' Flight numbers 907 and 958 are still used by

Japan Airlines , also known as JAL (''Jaru'') or , is an international airline and Japan's flag carrier and largest airline as of 2021 and 2022, headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its main hubs are Tokyo's Narita International Airport and Haneda Airport, as w ...

for the same respective routes today, but are operated with a

Boeing 777 The Boeing 777, commonly referred to as the Triple Seven, is an American long-range wide-body airliner developed and manufactured by Boeing Commercial Airplanes. It is the world's largest twinjet. The 777 was designed to bridge the gap betw ...

and

Boeing 737 The Boeing 737 is a narrow-body aircraft produced by Boeing at its Renton Factory in Washington. Developed to supplement the Boeing 727 on short and thin routes, the twinjet retains the 707 fuselage width and six abreast seating with two u ...

, respectively.

Criminal investigation and trial

The

Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department The serves as the prefectural police department of Tokyo Metropolis. Founded in 1874, it is headed by a Superintendent-General, who is appointed by the National Public Safety Commission, and approved by the Prime Minister. The Tokyo Met ...

and Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport investigated the incident. In May 2003, Tokyo police filed an investigative report concerning Hideki Hachitani (ATC trainee), Yasuko Momii (ATC Supervisor), and Makoto Watanabe (

pilot An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...

of flight 907), suspecting them of professional negligence. In March 2004, prosecutors indicted Hachitani and Momii for professional negligence."Not guilty verdict revoked, 2 air controllers given suspended sentences, date=February 20, 2009." ''

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. ne ...

''. April 11, 2008. Retrieved on December 11, 2009. Hachitani, then 30 years old, and Momii, then 35 years old, pleaded not guilty to the charges at

Tokyo District Court is a district court located at 1-1-4 Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the ...

in 2004. During the same year, the lawyer for Hachitani and Momii said that the pilots of the aircraft bore the responsibility for the near miss. By November 16, 2005, 12 trials had been held since the initial hearing on September 9, 2004. The prosecution argued that the two defendants neglected to provide proper separation for the two aircraft, the instructions issued were inappropriate, and that the supervisor failed to correct the trainee. The defense argued that the lack of separation would not immediately have led to a near miss, that the instructions issued were appropriate, that the TCAS procedure was not proper, and that the Computer Navigation Fix (CNF) had faulty data. In 2006, prosecutors asked for Hachitani, then 31, to be sentenced to ten years in

prison A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, corre ...

and for Momii, then 37, to be sentenced to 15 years in prison. On March 20, 2006, the court ruled that Hachitani and Momii were not guilty of the charge. The court stated that Hachitani could not have foreseen the accident and that the mixup of the flight numbers did not have a causal relationship with the accident.

Hisaharu Yasui Hisaharu (written: 久治) is a masculine Japanese given name. Notable people with the name include: *, Japanese water polo player * Hisaharu Satoh, Japanese bowls player *, Japanese judge {{given name Japanese masculine given names ...

, the presiding judge, said that prosecuting controllers and pilots would be "unsuitable" in this case. The Tokyo District Public Prosecutor's Office filed an appeal with the Tokyo High Court on March 31. During the same year, the Japanese government agreed to pay Japan Airlines and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance a total of ¥82.4 million to compensate for the near miss (equivalent to ¥ million in ). On April 11, 2008, on appeal, a higher court overturned the decision and found Hachitani and Momii guilty. The presiding judge, , sentenced Hachitani, then 33, to 12 months imprisonment, and Momii, then 39, to 18 months imprisonment, with both sentences suspended for 3 years.Not guilty verdict revoked, 2 air controllers given suspended sentences+
" '' Kyodo News''. The lawyers representing the controllers appealed, but the convictions were upheld on October 26, 2010, by the Supreme Court.

In popular culture

The events of the incident are documented in the final season 3 episode of the Discovery Channel documentary ''Aircrash Confidential''. The episode was first aired on 20 August 2018. It was also briefly mentioned in the ''

Air Crash Investigation ''Mayday'', entitled ''Air Crash Investigation'' in Canada (alternatively known as ''Air Crash Investigations'' on Seven Network), New Zealand, South Africa, the United Kingdom (alternatively known as ''Air Crash: Disaster Revealed'' on 5Selec ...

'' (also known as ''Mayday'' in other countries) episode, "Deadly Crossroads".

Notes

References

External links

*

Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission The was a commission belonging to Japan′s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Commission members are appointed by the transport minister to research causes of aircraft and railway accidents and to suggest improvements to prevent ...

*
Aircraft Accident Investigation ReportArchive
**
Aircraft Accident Investigation ReportArchive
* Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport **
日本航空９０７便事故に係る書類送検に関する航空局長コメント
" May 7, 2003 (15th year of

Heisei The is the period of Japanese history corresponding to the reign of Emperor Emeritus Akihito from 8 January 1989 until his abdication on 30 April 2019. The Heisei era started on 8 January 1989, the day after the death of the Emperor Hirohito, ...

).
Archive
**

" March 31, 2006 (18th year of Heisei) ( ttps://web.archive.org/web/20130201184802/http://www.mlit.go.jp/kisha/kisha06/12/120331_2_.html Archive * Japan Airlines *
TOKYO: JANUARY 31, 2001 - FLIGHT JL907 INCIDENT
*

*

*

(Japanese) - Contains a list of passengers injured on Japan Airlines Flight 907 (Japanese)

Close Call For JAL Jets
'' CBS News''
Japan Jet in Mid-Air Near-Miss
''

ABC News ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...

''
A REVIEW OF JAL907/JAL958 NEAR MID-AIR COLLISION.

''

Mainichi Shimbun The is one of the major newspapers in Japan, published by In addition to the ''Mainichi Shimbun'', which is printed twice a day in several local editions, Mainichi also operates an English language news website called ''The Mainichi'' (previ ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Japan Airlines 2001 Aviation accidents and incidents caused by air traffic controller error Aviation accidents and incidents in Japan Accidents and incidents involving the Boeing 747 Accidents and incidents involving the McDonnell Douglas DC-10 Aviation accidents and incidents in 2001 2001 in Japan Japan Airlines accidents and incidents January 2001 events in Japan

Flight information

Mid-air incident

Aftermath

Criminal investigation and trial

In popular culture

See also

Notes

References

External links