Is Japan serious about aircraft safety?

[LTNman]

http://mdn.mainichi.co.jp/news/20040320p2a00m0dm007000c.html

Police have warned a Japanese passenger who violated a tough new smoking-ban under the revised Aviation Law that bans harassing acts on planes.

The Japanese man in his 40s, whose name is being withheld, repeatedly smoked in a toilet and switched his mobile phone on despite receiving several warnings from attendants on a flight for Zurich jointly operated by Japan Airlines (JAL) and Swissair on March 9.

The Aviation Law was revised in January to ban any acts causing trouble to passengers and consequently JAL decided to file a report against the man with police at Narita airport, the first time any airliner has done so in Japan.

After the man returned to Japan on March 12, officers questioned him, but he escaped any punishment. (Wire reports, Japan, March 20, 2004)

[Few Cloudy]

Interesting to see that Swissair are back in business (only joking - I guess it's a slip of the keyboard).

They are serious about safety in many ways - shame they didn't back the crew on this one though.

Could be a difference of perception between the JCAB and the police.

[Traffic]

This is the same JCAB that now insists on rendering FMC's redundant by demanding that we all get radio vector clearances and clutter up the airwaves with useless chatter.

The only reason noone did anything is that the guy was obviuosly a Yakuza and the japanese authorities don't want noisy vans parked outside airline offices calling the captain's wife a harlot.

The one thing you soon learn about Japanese authority ( that well known oxymoron) is that they are weak agin the strong and strong agin the weak.

[JALD10]

If you are Japanese and in Japan, you have to kill somebody twice to get arrested. If a gaijing smoked you would be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

Typical "Kabuki". Operation normal. FUBAR