TOKYO: The All Nippon Airways (ANA) plane that hit runway lights at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Monday (Oct 13) may have tried to take off using the edge of the runway, instead of its centre.
In April, on the same runway, a Japan Airlines aircraft also drove along the edge of the pavement and collided with runway lights.
Japan’s Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry is investigating the latest case under the assumption that the ANA plane missed the centre line by a significant margin.
ANA Flight 639 was bound for Iwakuni Kintaikyo Airport in Yamaguchi Prefecture, and the runway it used, Runway D, is about 60m wide and 2.5km long. The plane appears to have driven in a line about 30m to the left of the runway’s centre.
After the plane took off, 16 white runway edge lights and two blue taxiway edge lights, each about 30cm tall, were found to have been damaged along the left side of the runway over a roughly 800m stretch.
Runway D also has white center-line lights embedded in its surface. However, due to work to improve the runway’s paving, some centre-line lights have been turned off since March, though the runway continues to be used.
The centre-line lights near where ANA Flight 639 began its take-off are said to have been off on the night of Oct 13.
The transport ministry had notified airlines and other relevant parties that some centre-line lights were off.
The ANA plane departed around 9pm on Oct 13 and returned to Haneda around 10pm, as it became apparent that the plane may have collided with the runway lights, according to the transport ministry.
No injuries were reported among the 174 crew members and passengers. - The Japan News/ANN
