Concerns mount over runway technology gap as Japan probes crash
By Tim Hepher, Allison Lampert, David Shepardson and Valerie Insinna
PARIS (Reuters) -A runway collision at Tokyo's Haneda airport has raised concerns over a gap in alerting technology, weeks after the global aviation industry faced new warnings about runway safety.
All 379 people aboard a Japan Airlines (JAL) (T:9201) Airbus A350 escaped following a collision with a Dash-8 Coast Guard turboprop that killed five of six crew on the smaller aircraft.
Experts have cautioned it is too early to pinpoint a cause and stress most accidents are caused by a cocktail of factors.
Investigators are examining conversations between controllers and pilots and are expected to embark in coming days on a detailed examination of plane and airport systems.
Japanese authorities said on Wednesday the A350 was given permission to land, but the Coast Guard plane was not cleared for take-off, based on control tower transcripts.
The crash marks the first significant accident involving the Airbus A350, in service since 2015, and the first destruction by fire of a new generation of carbon-composite airliner.
It comes weeks after a U.S.-based safety group called for global action to prevent a new uptick in runway collisions or «incursions» as skies become more congested.
«Despite efforts over the years to prevent incursions, they still happen,» Flight Safety Foundation CEO Hassan Shahidi said in a statement.
«The risk of runway incursions is a global concern, and the potential consequences of an incursion are severe.»
Although ground collisions involving injury or damage have become rare, their potential for loss of life is among the highest of any category and near-misses are more common.
A collision between two Boeing (NYSE:BA) 747s in Tenerife in
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