2001 Japan Airlines Mid-air Incident - Mid-air Incident

Mid-air Incident

JA8904's TCAS sounded 20 minutes after its departure as the jet climbed towards 39,000 feet. The DC-10, JA8546, cruised at 37,000 feet.

The mid-air incident occurred as flight attendants began to serve drinks onboard Flight 907.

The two planes were on a collision course towards each other. The pilots of both planes had received conflicting instructions from their TCAS and the flight controller at the Tokyo Area Control Center in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Flight 907, headed by 40-year-old pilot Makoto Watanabe (渡辺 誠, Watanabe Makoto?), followed an order to descend issued by the flight controller while Flight 958, headed by pilot Tatsuyuki Akazawa (赤沢 達幸, Akazawa Tatsuyuki?), descended as instructed by the TCAS, meaning that both planes remained on a collision course. The trainee for the aerospace sector, 26-year-old Hideki Hachitani (蜂谷 秀樹, Hachitani Hideki?), handled ten other flights at the time of the near miss. Hachitani intended to tell Flight 958 to descend. Instead, at 3:54 p.m, 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, Yasuko Momii (籾井 康子, Momii Yasuko?), ordered ″JAL 957″ to climb, intending to tell JAL 907 to climb. There was no "JAL 957" in the sky.

The aircraft avoided collision using evasive maneuvers once they were visual. The aircraft missed each other by less than 100 meters. Watanabe said that the aircraft were 35 feet (11 m) apart. An unidentified passenger told NHK "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, a school for children with parents stationed at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa Prefecture, 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. 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 4:45 PM.

Thirteen students at Kadena High School had boarded Flight 907 after returning from a school-sanctioned ROTC competition. Two students from the U.S. state of Michigan, 15-year-old Meggan Wesche and 14-year-old Allison Ambrose, sustained some minor injuries and became hospitalized for a short time. Wesche, who had slipped out of her seat during the descent and became disoriented from the incident, received an X-ray and other examinations at Toho University Hospital. She said that her body felt like "the plane is going down again" even though she was on land. The following day the students left on another Japan Airlines flight and arrived in Okinawa.