http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20030...dm023003c.html
JAL pilot, 2 controllers face charges over near-miss
A pilot and two air traffic controllers face charges over a near miss between two Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger planes in 2001 that injured 83 people, law enforcers said Wednesday.
Mainichi Shimbun
Shaken passengers console each other at Haneda Airport in January 2001 after a JAL plane in which they were travelling nearly collided with another plane mid-air.
Police sent investigation reports to prosecutors Wednesday, accusing the 43-year-old captain, and a 28-year-old and 34-year-old air traffic controller of professional negligence resulting in injuries and violating the law that prohibits actions that endanger air traffic.
Police took the action after concluding the accident was triggered by an erroneous instruction that the controllers gave the captain and the pilot's ignorance of an instruction given by his aircraft's Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS).
This is the first time that police have filed accusations against a pilot and air traffic controllers over a near-miss incident. Prosecutors will carefully examine the investigation documents and thoroughly question the three and witnesses before deciding whether or not to indict them.
The accident occurred on Jan. 31, 2001. JAL Flight 970 bound for Naha from Tokyo's Haneda and Flight 958 bound for Narita from Pusan barely avoided a midair collision above Shizuoka Prefecture.
The 28-year-old male air traffic controller, who was undergoing training at the time, mistakenly ordered Flight 907 to descend even though he was supposed to give the instruction to another aircraft. A 34-year-old female controller, who was serving as an instructor, also overlooked his mistake.
The TCAS on Flight 907, a Boeing 747-400, activated because it was approaching Flight 958, and instructed the cockpit crew to climb. Nevertheless, the captain chose to descend in accordance with the controller's order rather than the TCAS alarm.
At the same time, Flight 958, a DC-10, followed an instruction by its TCAS to descend. As a result, both aircraft descended and came alarmingly close to each other. The altitude difference is estimated to have been only 20 to 60 meters, investigators said.
Eighty-three passengers and crewmembers on Flight 907 were injured when it descended extremely sharply.
Police are seeking criminal charges against the three after some 57 of those injured filed criminal complaints with law enforcers, investigators said. Investigators have concluded the 28-year-old controller should have taken care to prevent the accident even though he was a trainee, and that the older controller should have monitored the positions of all the aircraft she was controlling.
Police chose to seek charges against the captain on the grounds that he failed to follow a TCAS instruction, which could have led to a fatal accident. (Mainichi Shimbun, Japan, May 7, 2003)