4 ms·

Don't towers all over the world give this information? It's almost every time I'm flying that the pilot tells us as we approach the runway we're number 1 for de

• CPLX 3y ago
  They do, it's incredibly common and it's useful information. This Japanese response seems very confusing, it's hard to understand how this could possibly be relevant to the accident. Unless of course there's a Japanese/English phonetic overlap I'm not aware of.
  • cromka 3y ago
    > This Japanese response seems very confusing, it's hard to understand how this could possibly be relevant to the accident. "The move comes after the misinterpretation of the phrase could have led to last week's deadly collision between a Japan Airlines passenger plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft on a runway at Tokyo's Haneda Airport."
    • alistairSH 3y ago
      That would indicate "you are next" was being used as a substitute for either/both of "line up and wait" and "cleared for take-off." While that's certainly possible, it would be surprising. Typical ATC commands at a busy commercial airport would be something like: "Taxi via XYZ, hold at ABC" (where ABC is close to, but a safe distance from, the runway surface) "Line up and wait" (enter the runway, but hold while existing traffic clears the runway) "Clear for takeoff" (runway is clear, you may depart) In this incident, I don't think either of those last two commands were given.
    • thrill 3y ago
      I suspect that it was common, at least to that pilot's ear, that "line up and wait, you're number one for takeoff" had been heard together so many times that when he heard only the latter his brain "helpfully" filled in the former. Some terminology change is occasionally warranted.
      • mixdup 3y ago
        If that was literally the words used probably need to enforce that it's "you're number one for departure" so that you can't inadvertently think takeoff meant cleared for takeoff
        • cromka 3y ago
          This may be down to how people interpret number 1 in a queue. Think of the floor numbers: some countries use 1 as a ground floor, some use 0. So being number 1 in line may mean something else in different cultures, and considering how cultures mingle nowadays, it's not hard to imagine someone just got confused there for a second.
  • numpad0 3y ago
    Reportedly the sole surviving captain of the turboprop had understanding that he was cleared to enter the active runway, which to (ATC clip watcher non-pilot) me sounds like there is skill aspect to this accident stemming from lack of public interest in general aviation here in Japan. There has also been news articles pointing fingers on this. I don't know whether it's media fixating out of depth or whether there is such early stage suspicion shared among investigators.
• ogurechny 3y ago
  Just a typical corporate/bureaucratic response. They've already made a bigger joke of themselves with the announcement that traffic controllers are now officially instructed to look at screens.
• me_me_me 3y ago
  'you are next' as in I am going next right after they guy goes. Or 'you are next' as in go now because its your turn.
  • mixdup 3y ago
    We've already been through several disasters based on misunderstandings about whether or not a pilot was cleared for takeoff. That's why they explicitly use "cleared for takeoff" and if you hear anything other than that, you are not cleared for takeoff It should be painfully obvious, given how often towers give sequence numbers, that "you're next" does not mean "you can go" or cleared for takeoff given that runways are used for dual operation takeoff and landing all the time I wonder if this was a language situation, along with a pilot that is not used to operating at a large commercial airport (the coast guard) and maybe even some differences the Japanese coast guard/military writ large might have vs. civilian practices
  • unsupp0rted 3y ago
    There should be some explicit non-idiomatic variation of "you're on deck", since "you are next" is ambiguous.
• MDWolinski 3y ago
  Agree that this change doesn’t address what happened. I’m studying for my PPL and certainly very inexperienced at this but this accident seems to be a combination of many mistakes on everyone’s part. I know when instructor and I were going in for a landing we’d always note that there was a plane lined up to take off. Granted haven’t done night flying yet but would imagine the same thing would occur. When we’re lined up to take off, after we get permission to enter the runway, we confirm it over the radio then make sure nobody is on approach or at least far enough out to make a speedy departure if asked by tower.
  • jtokoph 3y ago
    I think some combinations of aircraft and runways leads to landing pilots not having a good view of the end of the runway