Transportation

Japan Plane Crash Probe Points to Coast Guard Crew Confusion

A Japan Airlines passenger plane on fire on a runway of Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Jan. 2.

Photographer: Richard A. Brooks/AFP/Getty Images 

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Cockpit voice recordings released Wednesday indicate Japanese coast guard pilots wrongly thought they could enter an active runway minutes before being struck by a Japan Airlines Co. jet.

The recordings, in a report tabled by the Japan Transport Safety Board close to the first anniversary of the Jan. 2, 2024 tragedy, pointed to inconsistencies between the instructions by air traffic controllers to the pilots, and the subsequent actions by the cockpit crew.