All 379 people onboard the Japan Airlines (JAL) Airbus A350 escaped after it erupted in flames following a collision with a Dash-8 Coast Guard turboprop that killed five of six crew on the smaller aircraft.
Investigators have already begun examining what instructions were given by controllers to the two aircraft, alongside a detailed examination of plane and airport systems.
The crash is the first significant accident involving the Airbus flagship, an A350, Europe's premier carbon-composite long-haul jet, in service since 2015. The aircraft involved in the accident in Tokyo was delivered to Japan Airlines a little over two years ago.
Japan Airlines, unlike most other A350 operators, operate the A350-900 for domestic flights - and have certification for a higher density cabin given the aircraft isn’t required to fly long distances, or over oceans.
Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department said on Wednesday that it will investigate the possibility that professional negligence led to the deaths and injuries, news outlets including Kyodo news agency, Nikkei Asia and Nippon TV reported.
A police spokesperson said a special investigation unit had set up at the airport and was investigating the runway and planning to interview people involved but declined to comment on whether they were looking into possible professional negligence.
Japan Airlines said that the aircraft had recognised and repeated the landing permission from air traffic control before approaching and touching down.
In a separate development, the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) says it is also conducting its own inquiry into the crash.
The investigation involves collaboration with French and British authorities, as the Airbus aircraft was constructed in France, and its Rolls-Royce engines were manufactured in Britain.
Airbus has dispatched technical advisers to support the investigation. According to the Kyodo news agency, the JTSB has successfully retrieved flight and voice recorders from the coastguard aircraft involved in the collision.
Japan has not experienced a significant aviation incident since 1985, when a JAL jumbo jet crashed in the central Gunma region while en route from Tokyo to Osaka, resulting in the tragic loss of 520 passengers and crew; an incident that ranks among the deadliest plane crashes globally.
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 747s in Tenerife in 1977, killing 583 people, remains aviation's most deadly accident.
In 2016, a China Eastern Airbus A320 getting airborne from Shanghai missed hitting an Airbus A330 from the same airline as it taxied across the take-off runway just 19 metres below.
In 2018, Airbus said it was working with Honeywell on a system called SURF-A, or Surface-Alert, designed to help prevent runway collisions by giving pilots visual and audio warnings about approaching hazards.
But no date for implementation has yet been announced and rolling out complex new aviation systems can take years.
"The system is still under development," an Airbus spokesperson said.
The head of Honeywell's Aerospace Technologies division, Jim Currier, told Reuters the system went through a series of successful tests in December and should be certified and available to airlines "gradually over the next few years".
A spokesperson for Airbus confirmed that all of the manufacturer’s jets have a certain level of fire resistance and structural integrity in the event of an external fire.
Images captured after daybreak on Wednesday morning showed what remained of the JAL plane, its main wings and tail identifiable but the fuselage almost completely reduced to ashes.
Though three of the four runways at Haneda — Japan’s busiest airport — were reopened by late Tuesday night, more than 100 flights operated by JAL and its main rival, ANA, had been cancelled.
