Panel concludes multiple errors caused near-miss of JAL planes

The Aircraft and Railway Accidents Investigation Commission, a transport ministry panel, on Friday compiled a final report saying there were numerous reasons for the near-miss incident between two Japan Airlines (JAL) passenger planes in January 2001.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry panel concluded that air traffic control's error in giving the wrong flight numbers when asking the pilots to change course and the pilots' decision to follow air traffic control instead of the computerized Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) were two of the main causes.

The commission's report included a recommendation that the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) put priority on computer orders over instructions from controllers to prevent similar incidents. It will be the first case in which a Japanese panel has made a recommendation to the ICAO.

The recommendation is expected to draw further attention in the wake of the midair collision between two large aircraft over Lake Constance in southwestern Germany on July 1, believed to have been caused by contradictory instructions from a Swiss air controller and the TCAS on the two planes.

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