TOKYO, Jan 04 (Reuters): Japan Airlines (JAL) on Thursday said it expected losses of more than $100 million after one of its planes was destroyed when it collided with another aircraft on the runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport this week.
All 379 people on board the JAL Airbus A350 widebody jet escaped before the plane was completely engulfed in flames that took more than six hours to extinguish.
But five of the six crew of the other aircraft - a smaller Coast Guard plane that was in its third mission to deliver aid to quake-hit regions on Japan's west coast - were killed, with the surviving pilot badly injured.
As investigators combed the charred wreckage on Thursday, transport authorities are probing the circumstances that led to the Coast Guard plane entering the runway where the passenger jet was landing. Police are also looking into possible professional negligence in the case, according to media reports.
Transcripts released by authorities show air traffic control ordering the Coast Guard plane to proceed to a holding point near the runway minutes before the crash, instructions the pilot appeared to have read back in acknowledgement.
Japanese authorities said on Wednesday the passenger jet had been given permission to land, but the smaller plane had not been cleared for take-off, based on the transcripts.
The Coast Guard pilot said after the crash that he had been given permission to enter the runway, Coast Guard officials have said.
Authorities have only just begun their investigations and aviation experts say it usually takes the failure of multiple safety guardrails for an airplane accident to happen.
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