January 2, 2024.   Haneda Collision.

UPDATED on JANUARY 5th

Early last Tuesday evening, a Japan Airlines Airbus A350 collided with a Japanese coast guard plane while landing at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport. Most of you have seen the ghastly footage for the A350 skidding down the runway in flames after striking the much smaller de Havilland Dash-8 turboprop. Five people on the smaller plane were killed.

What went wrong, and who’s to blame, will be deciphered in time. For now, the most noteworthy and remarkable thing is that all 379 passengers and crew aboard the JAL plane were evacuated safely. This could have been much, much worse.

And it’s yet another example of why you should never, ever, fuss around with your carry-on luggage during an evacuation. When a plane is ablaze, the difference between life and death — yours or someone behind you — can be a matter of seconds. As we’ve seen in a number of evacuations in recent years, too may people insist on evacuating with their belongings, blocking up the aisles and wasting precious time.

I don’t care what contraband or sex toys you’ve got tucked away in your roll-aboard, or what valuable business secrets are on your company laptop: get the fuck out of the plane and leave your bags behind.

Reportedly, the first PA made to passengers as the JAL jetliner scraped to its fiery stop, was a stern warning to ignore any luggage and get to the exit slides immediately. Well done.

Mostly. One big asterisk is the time it took to get everyone off the plane. The FAA expects a jetliner to be fully evacuated within 90 seconds, even with half of its doors blocked or inoperative. It took over ten minutes for the JAL plane to be fully vacated.

Why it took so long is unclear, and will need to be scrutinized carefully. Was it a lack of urgency? Confusion? Whatever the reasons, it’s unacceptable. and our evacuation protocols may need some revising.