Japan Airlines has named Mitsuko Tottori as its first woman president following a collision between one of its planes and a Coast Guard aircraft during the Japanese New Year holidays that left five dead. Tottori currently senior managing executive officer of JAL and the first woman to climb the ranks from cabin attendant to the company’s new head vowed Wednesday in a press conference to stick to her commitment to aviation safety and make it a priority. She will take office in April and replace JAL president and CEO Yuji Akasaka, who will take over from Yoshiharu Ueki as the airline’s chairman.
Tottori’s appointment came two weeks after the fatal collision at Tokyo’s busy Haneda airport that was mostly seen as a result of human error.
On January 2, JAL’s Airbus A350-900, carrying 379 passengers and crew, landed directly behind the Coast Guard’s considerably smaller Bombardier Dash-8, which was prepared to take off from the same seashore runway. The crash engulfed both planes in flames.
All passengers on the JAL flight were safely evacuated in 18 minutes, but five of the six Coast Guard flying crew died.
Tottori also applauded the JAL Flight 516 cabin attendant for their dedication to safety in evacuating everyone on board and thanked the passengers for their assistance. “But there was an accident and that means there are things we still need to improve.”
An ongoing investigation into the crash has focused on whether the coast guard aircraft was cleared for departure. According to a partial release of the air traffic control transcript, the Bombardier was not given clear takeoff authority while on a mission to deliver relief supplies to communities in Japan’s north-central region struck by a magnitude 7.6 earthquake on New Year’s Day, and hundreds of aftershocks.
JAL President expects lessons from probe on safety risks in aviation communication
Akasaka, JAL’s current president, expressed his expectation that the probe will produce “lessons to be learned”. He also stated that the analog part of relying on voice communication between pilots and traffic control has been a global industry safety risk.
“I believe analog voice communication is definitely one of the major risks,” Akasaka said at his first news conference since the Jan 2 incident. Tottori, seated next to Akasaka, stated that her dedication to safety was unwavering. Her employment as a flight attendant began in 1985 when JAL Flight123 crashed into a mountain north of Tokyo. It was the world’s deadliest single-aircraft tragedy, killing 520 people. Only four people survived.
“The shock at that time is still deeply carved in my heart. And I have maintained a strong sense of responsibility to hand down the importance of aviation safety to younger generations,” Tottori said. “Safety is the foundation of an airline company and I will work on safe operations with even stronger conviction.”
Also on Wednesday, Coast Guard Commandant Shohei Ishii apologized to the public, as well as the JAL flight crew and passengers, for generating concern and inconvenience, and expressed sorrow to the five victims of his organization. Ishii vowed “full cooperation” with the transportation safety board and police investigation into the crash, stating that the organization will do all possible to strengthen safety measures based on the results. However, he declined to comment on the Coast Guard’s own findings or the likely cause of the confrontation.
The coast guard has subsequently banned flights at its Haneda facility, which houses the Bombardier, for accident response and to address mental health concerns among its members. Ishii stated that the Coast Guard also performed an emergency review of its aviation safety guidelines and procedures.