The runway at Tokyo's Haneda airport where a passenger jet landed April 29 on instruction by the air traffic control center while the runway was closed for maintenance

The Japan Airlines Airbus A300 plane, carrying 51 passengers and crew, touched down after a flight from Obihiro, Hokkaido, at 9:40 p.m., he said.

Another JAL plane, a Boeing 777 with 161 people on board inbound from Sapporo, was descending toward the closed runway, one of three at Haneda, but went around again.

Construction work, mainly runway-light maintenance, was due to start on the closed runway about 90 minutes later. But there were no vehicles, machinery or other obstructions on the landing strip at the time.

"Air controllers failed to remember the runway closure," he said. "We are investigating details on the cause of the incident."

Eighteen air traffic controllers were working at the time. The closure of the runway had been announced one month earlier but the information was not renewed April 29.

The Japan Times Weekly: May 7, 2005
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