ＪＡＬ機、英語の指示聞き違え滑走か　新千歳空港

ＪＡＬ機、英語の指示聞き違え滑走か　新千歳空港 2008年02月17日23時00分 　日本航空（ＪＡＬ）の５０２便が北海道・新千歳空港で許可なく滑走路を離陸滑走した重大トラブルで、管制官と操縦士との具体的なやりとりの一部が１７日、わかった。現地で調査した国土交通省航空・鉄道事故調査委員会は、ＪＡＬの操縦士が英語の指示を聞き違えた可能性とともに、吹雪で滑走路や誘導路が一部しか使えない状況にみあった交信だったのかなど、さらに調べる。 　事故調査関係者やＪＡＬによると、管制官が５０２便に出した指示は、「ｅｘｐｅｃｔ　ｉｍｍｅｄｉａｔｅｌｙ　ｔａｋｅｏｆｆ」（直ちに離陸するよう備えよ）という英語だった。国交省監修のマニュアルにはない表現だが、混雑時などに国際的に使われているという。この表現では、冒頭の「ｅｘｐｅｃｔ」（予期する）を聞き落とした場合、「ｉｍｍｅｄｉａｔｅｌｙ　ｔａｋｅｏｆｆ」（直ちに離陸せよ）と受け取れる。調査関係者は、操縦士がこの後段部分に影響され、離陸を許可されたと誤認した可能性があるとみている。 　現地を訪れた調査官は１６、１７の両日、５０２便の乗員と航空自衛隊の管制官から事情を聴いた。今後ボイスレコーダーを解析し、間違いが生じた背景を調べる。また当日は吹雪で視界が悪かったうえ、除雪作業のため先行の機体は一番奥の誘導路を使わざるを得ず、滑走路から出るタイミングが通常よりも遅れていた。管制との交信がこうした状況に適していたのかも、検証する。 Close shave at Chitose airport / 747 was accelerating for takeoff when controller gave abort order The Yomiuri Shimbun Flight 502 sits on the tarmac at New Chitose Airport, Hokkaido, on Saturday evening.SAPPORO--The close shave at Hokkaido's New Chitose Airport on Saturday in which a Japan Airlines jumbo jet nearly rear-ended another plane on the runway occurred despite a JAL operations manual that stipulates the captain and copilot must confirm with each other air traffic control instructions on landing, taking off or entering runways. The operations manual included this stipulation after a similar incident in January 2005 in which a JAL plane started taking off without permission at the same airport when visibility was poor because of driving snow. Saturday's near miss has prompted aviation industry experts to wonder why the airline repeated the same mistake. An air traffic controller instructed Flight 502--a Boeing 747-400 bound for Tokyo's Haneda Airport with 446 passengers and crew aboard--to enter the runway and wait for instructions to take off at about 10:30 a.m. "Prepare for immediate takeoff. An aircraft has just landed and is on the runway," the controller told the pilot. "There's a plane behind you at a distance of 10 kilometers making its final landing approach." The pilot responded by saying, "Roger." The pilot then applied full thrust and started the plane's takeoff run. A controller told the pilot to abort the takeoff immediately after noticing on the ground surveillance radar it had started its takeoff run without permission. Flight 502 made an emergency stop and came to a halt about 1,800 meters behind another JAL passenger jet--Flight 2503, an MD-90 with 126 passengers and crew--that had just arrived from Kansai Airport. Visibility at the time was about 500 meters, and it appears that the crew of the 747 was unable to see the MD-90. "I thought we had permission to take off," a crew member said, explaining why the plane began its takeoff without authorization. Mishearing instructions from the control tower is a possible cause of the near-miss. It is also possible that the heavy snow had delayed the plane far behind its scheduled departure time, the crew members were in a hurry to get the plane into the air. The Construction and Transport Ministry has also instructed airlines and airports that, when necessary, crew members should repeat all instructions from air traffic control to confirm that they have understood them, but it has no rules concerning in what specific situations such confirmation should be made. "The method of confirmation and other matters need to be clarified," a ministry spokesman said. Meanwhile, some passengers expressed anger that JAL kept them in the dark about the incident. One passenger said the captain made a short announcement that air traffic control had instructed him not to take off. A crew member then announced that the plane would return temporarily to the parking apron. But the plane could not depart because of the heavy snow, and the flight was eventually canceled just after 2 p.m. Passengers on the flight later left for Haneda on a different aircraft. "As well as being confined inside the airplane like a sardine, I missed my scheduled connection," one passenger said. "No explanation was given about the incident." (Feb. 18, 2008)