A team of experts from the French Bureau of Investigation and Analysis (BEA) for civil aviation is due to arrive in Japan on Wednesday to participate in the investigation into the ground collision of a Japan Airlines Airbus with a plane of the Japanese Coast Guard, we learned this Tuesday from the organization. An Airbus A350 from the Japanese company which had just landed on Tokyo Haneda Airport collided for reasons that remain to be determined with a Japanese Coast Guard Bombardier Dash 8 which was preparing to take off.
The 367 passengers and 12 crew members of the airliner were able to be evacuated before the plane caught fire. Five of the six occupants of the Coast Guard plane were killed. The French BEA participates in the technical, so-called safety, investigation for aircraft abroad, particularly when it acts as the competent authority of the country where the aircraft was built. The A350 is produced in Toulouse, in the southwest of France.
In a separate statement, Airbus said it would provide “technical assistance” to the Japan Transportation Safety Board (JTSB), which is responsible for the investigation. “To this end, Airbus is currently sending a team of specialists to assist the authorities,” said the aircraft manufacturer. The accident A350-900 was delivered to the airline on November 10, 2021 and had the serial number MSN538, according to Airbus. Japan Airlines has 16 examples of this aircraft model.