The Transportation Safety Board of Canada (TSB) will participate in the investigation into the collision at Tokyo-Haneda Airport on Tuesday of two planes, one of which was designed and manufactured here.
In the aftermath of the accident, the TSB indicated that it had “offered assistance to the Japanese Transportation Safety Board” and then appointed an accredited representative to participate in the investigation in accordance with the Convention on International Civil Aviation.
The latter is involved in the investigation since one of the two devices involved in the collision, that of the Japanese coast guard, was designed and manufactured in Canada. It is a Bombardier Dash 8 from the De Havilland Canada company equipped with engines from the Pratt & Whitney company.
Technical advisors from the two companies will also accompany the TSB representative who will “coordinate the exchange of information relating to the aircraft and its engines, which were designed and manufactured in Canada, and assist Japan in its investigation”, we specify.
A team of experts from the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) for civil aviation was due to arrive in Japan on Wednesday, the other plane involved in the accident being an Airbus A350-900, produced in Toulouse. Airbus also announced that it would send a “technical assistance” team to help the investigation by the Japanese Transportation Safety Board.
Human error probably involved
The accident occurred at 5:47 p.m. local time (3:47 a.m. Eastern) on Tuesday. Footage from Tokyo Haneda Airport shows a Japan Airlines plane landing on the tarmac before a large explosion goes off, leaving a trail of flames and smoke in the plane’s wake. , which stops a little further away.
All 379 passengers and crew members of flight JAL516 survived, having been evacuated after the airliner collided while landing with a smaller Japanese coast guard aircraft, which was preparing to take off .
On the other hand, five of the six occupants of the Coast Guard Bombardier Dash 8, which was going to deliver food to the victims of a series of earthquakes elsewhere in the country, died. Only the captain managed to evacuate, and was seriously injured.
Although the investigation has only just begun, experts consulted on Tuesday believed that human error was most likely the cause of the accident.
On Wednesday, several clues began to emerge suggesting that the Japan Airlines plane, destroyed by the flames, was not at fault. Indeed, a series of radio exchanges communicated Wednesday by the Japanese Ministry of Transport, the control tower had asked a few minutes before the accident for the coast guard plane to move to a stopping point, at the deviation from the track.
With Agence France-Presse