JAL pilot did not see coast guard plane on runway before collision

Series of human errors led up to the fiery crash at Haneda Airport

20240104N JAL wreckage

Tokyo police gather in front of the wreckage of the JAL plane at Haneda Airport on Jan. 4. © Kyodo

KOJI MURAKOSHI and SAHO NAKAGAWA, Nikkei staff writers

TOKYO -- Neither the Japan Airlines crew nor air traffic control noticed in time that the Japan Coast Guard plane had taxied onto the runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport before the deadly collision on Tuesday, the latest information on the accident shows.

The captain of the coast guard plane, the lone survivor among a crew of six, told the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department that "the back [of the aircraft] suddenly went up in flames," according to a source connected to the investigation.

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