On Tuesday, Japan Airlines Flight 516 collided with another airplane while landing, causing a massive fireball and multiple deaths. 

According to what information we currently have, the JAL A350-900, a variant of the newest widebody airliner from Airbus, was on approach to runway 34R in Haneda, Japan, when it hit a Japan Coast Guard DHC-8-315 Dash-8 turboprop. Videos showed the moment of impact and the aftermath. 

BREAKING: Japan Airlines plane with 367 people on board collides with Coast Guard plane at Tokyo Airport pic.twitter.com/ANheXFC2Ny

— BNO News (@BNONews) January 2, 2024

Japan Airlines flight JAL 516 was on fire on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday, after colliding with a coast guard plane.

Footage showed the passenger aircraft burning as it moved along the runway before becoming engulfed after it came to a standstill.… pic.twitter.com/2UqE9OdY7o

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 2, 2024

Incredibly, despite the immediate fire, the A350 was successfully evacuated in time, and no one onboard it was killed. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Dash-8. As of this writing, at least five people are confirmed dead, with only the captain of that flight escaping with severe injuries. 

Some are speculating this has to do with a series of "near misses" in the United States. I would caution against leaning into favored press explanations in a situation like this. This crash happened in Japan, and the problem with Air Traffic Control staffing in the United States simply did not play a role in this specific incident. 

As to how something like this could happen, you may recall the crash of Asiana (a South Korean carrier) Flight 214, which came up short on landing in San Francisco after first starting above the glideslope and then ending up well below it and too slow. The plane split in two, killing three people. 

That crash was blamed on an overreliance on automation and a distinct lack of hand-flying skills by the pilots. In short, pilot training in Asian nations is very different than in the United States, with a heavy emphasis on technical knowledge and strict SOPs that do not allow the development and maintenance of stick and rudder skills. Most carriers do not allow hand-flying after a few hundred feet of takeoff and require the autopilot on approach.

Was this another case of an Asian carrier not training its pilots to handle tense situations, such as needing to quickly take manual control upon seeing another airplane in its flight path? Why was a go-around not executed? Why did the tower not see the incident unfolding? These are all questions that will have to be answered in the coming months.