The Great East Japan Earthquake created chaos in the skies, forcing 86 passenger jets to find new destinations and 14 to issue emergency landing declarations, transport ministry officials said.
The Great East Japan Earthquake created chaos in the skies, forcing 86 passenger jets to find new destinations and 14 to issue emergency landing declarations, transport ministry officials said.
The main problem for air traffic controllers was that the runways were closed for inspections at both Narita and Haneda airports, which serve the greater Tokyo area, after the magnitude-9.0 quake struck on March 11 last year. The closures forced many pilots to search for alternative landing sites, leading to a surge in emergency landing declarations.
Aviation experts said such a large number of emergency declarations at one time is unheard of globally.
Ministry officials said the air traffic control system would be revised to prevent a recurrence.
Pilots issue emergency declarations to obtain landing priority because of malfunctions to the aircraft or engine, fires or fuel shortages.
The pilots of the 14 passenger jets who issued emergency landing declarations said they were running low on fuel, according to ministry officials.
The officials said the closing of Narita and Haneda airports forced 86 jets, including 70 international flights, to find new landing sites.
Normally, jets will pick an alternative site before they take off to prepare for the possibility of bad weather. However, because the weather on March 11 was good, 78 of the 86 jets had selected Haneda or Narita as the alternative site if their original destination was the other airport.
Most of the jets were large, so the closure of Narita and Haneda airports meant they had to fly to Chubu or Kansai international airports, which have the needed runway lengths to allow those jets to land. That, in turn, forced the jets to use up more fuel.
Air traffic controllers also became confused because so many pilots were seeking new landing sites, causing a chain reaction in issuing the emergency declarations.
Delta Airlines Flight 91 bound for Narita from Portland tried to divert to Chubu Airport, but the pilot was told by air traffic controllers to turn back because the airport was full. The pilot was forced to issue an emergency declaration to land at New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido.
Japan Airlines Flight 958 from Busan and American Airlines Flight 175 from Dallas-Fort Worth both issued emergency declarations. Because both jets were given priority to land, Japan Airlines Flight 874, which had departed Shanghai and was in a holding pattern above Awajishima island, was also forced to issue the declaration to land at Kansai International Airport.
According to ministry officials, of the 14 jets that issued the emergency declarations, the one with the longest extended flight time was in the air for two hours and 20 minutes longer than originally scheduled.
Three other jets were forced to fly at least an additional 90 minutes, four had flight times extended by between 60 and 89 minutes and three others less than 60 minutes. It was unclear how much longer three other jets were in the air beyond their original schedules.
Citing confidentiality, none of the airlines revealed how much fuel was remaining in the jets that issued the emergency declarations.
(This article was written by Hiroki Koizumi and Makoto Watanabe.)