Originally Posted by
Indarra
The monitoring system at Haneda was
working properly during the night of the crash, but the air traffic control crew did not notice that the coast guard plane had erroneously entered the runway.
The transport ministry has also ordered airlines to make sure that aircraft crews confirm runways are clear before landing. The pilots on the JAL jetliner were unable to visually confirm the coast guard plane because it was nighttime.
The transport ministry is establishing a committee to explore further measures. One item on the agenda will be upgrades to systems informing pilots and air traffic control about the situation on the runways. The first meeting is expected to take place next week.
So does this mean that arriving crews have to specifically ask ATC to confirm that nothing is on the runway? As in, prompt ATC to do a quick check of the monitoring tech in case they've forgotten? Are they making it the responsibility of the pilots to make sure the runway is clear? In low vis conditions? At night?
Can nobody just admit that a Japanese crew failed to wait for the words 'line up and wait' or 'cleared for take-off', and that Japanese ATC failed to monitor the equipment that was showing them the incursion - because it wasn't part of their job description?