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As far as I can tell the ATC told the coast guard aircraft they were number 1 for takeoff but never cleared them for takeoff. They thought they were cleared and

by eknkc 3y ago

As far as I can tell the ATC told the coast guard aircraft they were number 1 for takeoff but never cleared them for takeoff. They thought they were cleared and lined up on the runway, prepared for takeoff and even applied throttle just before the impact. Then the JAL aircraft basically landed on the occupied runway..

deleted 3y ago
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logifail 3y ago
> They thought they were cleared [..] I don't know how they could think that, they read back the ATC message and it seems unambiguous: Tokyo TOWER: "JA722A Tokyo TOWER good evening. Number 1, taxi to holding point C5." JA722A: "Taxi to holding point C5 JA722A Number 1, thank you"
- eknkc 3y ago
  They would also be able to hear the landing clearance for the other aircraft, no?. They would know someone was landing at that moment. Weird accident.
  - anilakar 3y ago
    They checked in on the tower frequency after the landing clearance was given so they likely were on ground until that point.
  - logifail 3y ago
    > They would know someone was landing [...] A good friend of mine worked for decades in ATC, I asked him earlier today what he'd have said, he thought "Taxi to C5 and hold" would have avoided confusion. In his view "Number 1" isn't helpful.