TOKYO (Jiji Press) — Authorities are probing a possible overweight of a light plane that crashed into a residential area only tens of seconds after taking off from Chofu airport in a Tokyo suburb on Sunday, investigation sources have said.
The airplane was scheduled to make a round-trip training flight to the island of Izu Oshima, south of Tokyo, which would take an hour each way. But a flight plan submitted in advance said that the plane would carry fuel for a five-hour flight.
According to sources including the transport ministry, the crashed plane had a capacity of six people, and its limit weight at the time of takeoff was about 1,950 kilograms. This suggests that the weight other than that of the plane itself must be less than 760 kilograms. Fuel for a five-hour flight weighs about 270 kilograms, while the plane was boarded by five people, all men.
The accident led to the deaths of three people, presumed to be Taishi Kawamura, 36, who piloted the plane, Mitsuru Hayakawa, 36, a passenger on the plane, and Nozomi Suzuki, 34, a resident of the house into which the aircraft crashed. Five other people were injured.
Meanwhile, it was learned that Kawamura had decided to use the six-seater plane, instead of an initially planned smaller aircraft, for the training flight.
Tokyo’s Metropolitan Police Department is set to question people concerned about why he made the change. The MPD is also examining personal computers, aircraft maintenance manuals and other items seized during its raids Tuesday on pilot training school SIP Aviation, for which Kawamura served as president, and two other places.
http://the-japan-news.com
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Fuel weight, heat may have led to Chofu plane crash
The small plane that crashed into a residential area of Chofu, western Tokyo, last weekend was likely close to its weight limit as it was carrying five times as much fuel as needed, transport ministry officials said Tuesday.
In addition, the hot temperature of around 34 degrees at the time of the aircraft’s takeoff could have reduced the power of the plane’s engine and prevented it from gaining altitude, aviation sources said.
The Piper PA-46 crashed at around 11 a.m. Sunday, less than a minute after taking off from Chofu Airport.
The crash killed the pilot, Taishi Kawamura, and two others. They are believed to be Nozomi Suzuki, who lived in the house the plane crashed into, and All Nippon Airways Co. employee Mitsuru Hayakawa, a passenger in the pane, though police would not verify this.
Five other people were injured.
Police and the Japan Transport Safety Board are investigating whether the hot weather or the load weight was behind the cause of the accident while also looking into the possibility of engine trouble.
The aircraft, which was scheduled to make a one-hour flight to Izu Oshima Island about 100 km south, was carrying about 280 kg of fuel, enough for a five-hour flight, according to the flight plan submitted by the pilot.
The theoretical weight limit for the 1,200-kg aircraft was 1,950 kg. The fuel, along with the five men on board and their luggage, is likely to have brought the total weight of the plane to more than 1,850 kg.
A ministry official said it is possible the aircraft was fueled for a round trip and given extra fuel.
Single-engine propeller aircraft like the Piper PA-46 tend to drastically lose power when the outside temperature rises to around 35 degrees, the aviation sources said.
Little wind and the 800-meter-long runway at Chofu Airfield may have also made it difficult for the plane to gain altitude considering its heavy load, they said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
Did small plane that crashed Sunday have any problems with maintenance?
A house enveloped in flames and the body of a plane lying upside down at the site show the impact of the crash. What happened to the small aircraft?
A light propeller plane on Sunday crashed into a nearby residential area shortly after takeoff from Chofu Airport in western Tokyo. In the accident, a private house was burned down, killing a resident of the house, and the pilot of the plane and a passenger were also killed.
The Metropolitan Police Department began investigating the crash on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries.
The government’s Transport Safety Board also sent investigators to the site. We hope investigators will thoroughly elucidate the cause of the crash.
“I felt something was strange as the plane was flying low,” said one witness. Another witness said, “It sounded as if the whir of the propeller stopped.”
We can guess from eyewitness accounts the unusual movements of the small plane shortly before the crash. A number of experts have pointed out the possibility of a mechanical failure.
As small aircraft are not equipped with flight recorders, it is hoped accounts of the witnesses and surviving passengers aboard the plane will provide telling clues to the crash investigators.
Were there any problems with the maintenance of the aircraft? It was owned by a real estate-related firm and managed by a company specializing in aircraft maintenance. It was only in May that the aircraft passed an annual state airworthiness test, which is mandatory.
In Sunday’s flight, the aircraft was rented out by the hour by the maintenance company to a pilot training company managed by the pilot. In a recent test flight conducted by the pilot prior to the fatal flight, there was said to be nothing wrong with the plane.
Residents express concern
The pilot also carried out a preflight safety check of the plane on Sunday. Examining the maintenance records with regards to the contents of inspections of the engine and other parts is important.
The pilot was certified as a commercial pilot and also held a national certificate that qualified him to train pilots.
Yet he had logged somewhere between 600 and 700 hours flight hours domestically, meaning he was not considered a veteran pilot. He reported to the airport that the purpose of Sunday’s flight was “to master the operation of an aircraft” to maintain his flying skills.
Another question for investigators is why the plane went off its scheduled flight path and turned to the left before crashing. One expert said, “The pilot was probably trying to return to the airport after a problem occurred in the aircraft and the engine suddenly lost power.”
The airport has more than 16,000 landings and takeoffs a year. As there is no air traffic controller at the airport, pilots take off or land at their own discretion.
Nearby residents had expressed concerns about possible accidents at the airport, which is used as a base for regular commercial flights to the Izu Islands and as a base for private aircraft.
The metropolitan government plans to ask pilots of private aircraft to refrain from taking off or landing at the airport until the cause of the accident becomes clear. This is appropriate when taking the residents’ concerns into account.
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry must conduct a complete inspection of the safety measures taken by airports where small planes land or take off and of the maintenance system for aircraft.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 28, 2015)
Pilot in fatal Chofu crash licensed to instruct but plane not authorized for commercial flights
The pilot of a light plane that crashed into homes in Chofu, western Tokyo, on Sunday, killing him and two others ran a flight training company even though he lacked the necessary permission from the government, transport ministry officials said Monday.
Taishi Kawamura, 36, was among the three killed in the crash, which also claimed the lives of passenger Mitsuru Hayakawa, who was in his 30s, and Nozomi Suzuki, 34, who lived in one of the houses the plane slammed into, causing a massive fire.
The plane also carried three others, who were injured but survived. They were identified as Yasuyuki Tamura, 51, of Sango, Saitama Prefecture, Noriaki Moriguchi, 36, of Minato Ward, Tokyo, and Tsuyoshi Hanafusa, 35, of Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward, NHK reported, citing hospital sources and Nippon Aerotech Co.
The police were working to identify the two others who lived in the affected homes in Chofu and were injured.
According to the police and Nippon Aerotech, which serviced the single-engine Piper PA-46 propeller aircraft, the plane had taken off from Chofu airport at 10:58 a.m. bound for Izu Oshima island, roughly 100 km to the south, and was scheduled to return to Chofu at around 4:30 p.m. the same day. The plane crashed at around 11 a.m., only two minutes after takeoff.
Kawamura, a resident of Kawasaki, ran the aviation training company SIP Aviation, which was based in Chofu. According to the transport ministry, Kawamura was a licensed flight instructor but had not been authorized by the ministry to use aircraft for an aviation business, as is necessary for any pilot training operations. Kawamura had acknowledged this, explaining on his website that, despite repeated negotiations with authorities, he had not been able to obtain the state permission.
“The aviation training our company provides is done through ‘club membership,’ not through a ‘plane-using operation,'” Kawamura wrote on his website, adding that his firm, from the outset, had tried on numerous occasions to obtain the required permission from municipal governments and ministries, but to no avail. Kawamura had offered a range of training courses, including a five-month program to become a private pilot for ¥3.24 million.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the transport ministry, Kawamura had logged 1,500 hours of flight time. He had stated Sunday that he was embarking on an “orientation flight” to maintain pilot profficiency. Metro government officials said such flights are permitted for licensed pilots and the planes can carry passengers who are undergoing training to become pilots.
The flight was originally scheduled to take off at 10:45 a.m. and arrive at the island one hour later, transport ministry officials said. The departure was delayed by 13 minutes. The plane had fuel enough for several hours of flight.
The plane was not equipped with a voice recorder or a flight recorder.
At the time of the departure, the plane was operating under visual flight rules, which is common when weather and visibility are favorable, allowing the pilot to operate the aircraft based on his or her own judgment without having to depend on radioed instructions from air traffic controllers.
The Metropolitan Police Department opened an investigation into the crash on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injuriy. The Japan Transport Safety Board sent three air accident investigators to the crash scene.
The plane previously sustained engine and other damage during a failed landing attempt at an airport in Sapporo in October 2004. It received an airworthiness certificate after repairs were carried out, transport ministry officials said.
The crash site is near Ajinomoto Stadium, which has a capacity of about 50,000 spectators, and an interchange of the Chuo Expressway.
Chofu airport was opened in 1941. It was later seized by the U.S. military and was returned to Japan in 1973, according to the metropolitan government, which took over the facility’s management in 2001.
The airport has only one runway, which is 800 meters long, and is used for regular flights to and from the islands of Izu Oshima and Miyakejima, both part of the Izu chain of islands under the administration of the metro government. It is also used by private and business aircraft.
According to the transport ministry, a propeller plane crashed into the playground of a Chofu junior high school, which is about 300 meters from the site of Sunday’s accident, just after taking off from Chofu airport on Aug. 10, 1980. All aboard the plane were killed in the crash.
Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp
TOKYO—A small plane crashed into a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo on Sunday, killing the pilot, a passenger and a woman on the ground, while three people were pulled alive from the wreckage, firefighters and TV reported.
The single-engine propeller plowed into and set ablaze a row of houses shortly after takeoff from an airport used by small aircraft about 500 meters away in Tokyo’s western suburb of Chofu.
Television footage showed a mangled plane, broken up with its tail upside down, resting on a residential lot where dozens of firefighters were battling the blaze and treating the casualties.
Tokyo Fire Department officials said the three dead suffered heart and lung failures. Five others, including three passengers and two on the ground, were taken to hospitals but their conditions weren't immediately known.
The plane was flying to Izu Oshima Island, about 100 kilometers south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, according to NHK public broadcaster.
Source: http://www.wsj.com
Fuel weight, heat may have led to Chofu plane crash
The small plane that crashed into a residential area of Chofu, western Tokyo, last weekend was likely close to its weight limit as it was carrying five times as much fuel as needed, transport ministry officials said Tuesday.
In addition, the hot temperature of around 34 degrees at the time of the aircraft’s takeoff could have reduced the power of the plane’s engine and prevented it from gaining altitude, aviation sources said.
The Piper PA-46 crashed at around 11 a.m. Sunday, less than a minute after taking off from Chofu Airport.
The crash killed the pilot, Taishi Kawamura, and two others. They are believed to be Nozomi Suzuki, who lived in the house the plane crashed into, and All Nippon Airways Co. employee Mitsuru Hayakawa, a passenger in the pane, though police would not verify this.
Five other people were injured.
Police and the Japan Transport Safety Board are investigating whether the hot weather or the load weight was behind the cause of the accident while also looking into the possibility of engine trouble.
The aircraft, which was scheduled to make a one-hour flight to Izu Oshima Island about 100 km south, was carrying about 280 kg of fuel, enough for a five-hour flight, according to the flight plan submitted by the pilot.
The theoretical weight limit for the 1,200-kg aircraft was 1,950 kg. The fuel, along with the five men on board and their luggage, is likely to have brought the total weight of the plane to more than 1,850 kg.
A ministry official said it is possible the aircraft was fueled for a round trip and given extra fuel.
Single-engine propeller aircraft like the Piper PA-46 tend to drastically lose power when the outside temperature rises to around 35 degrees, the aviation sources said.
Little wind and the 800-meter-long runway at Chofu Airfield may have also made it difficult for the plane to gain altitude considering its heavy load, they said.
http://www.japantimes.co.jp
A house enveloped in flames and the body of a plane lying upside down at the site show the impact of the crash. What happened to the small aircraft?
A light propeller plane on Sunday crashed into a nearby residential area shortly after takeoff from Chofu Airport in western Tokyo. In the accident, a private house was burned down, killing a resident of the house, and the pilot of the plane and a passenger were also killed.
The Metropolitan Police Department began investigating the crash on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in deaths and injuries.
The government’s Transport Safety Board also sent investigators to the site. We hope investigators will thoroughly elucidate the cause of the crash.
“I felt something was strange as the plane was flying low,” said one witness. Another witness said, “It sounded as if the whir of the propeller stopped.”
We can guess from eyewitness accounts the unusual movements of the small plane shortly before the crash. A number of experts have pointed out the possibility of a mechanical failure.
As small aircraft are not equipped with flight recorders, it is hoped accounts of the witnesses and surviving passengers aboard the plane will provide telling clues to the crash investigators.
Were there any problems with the maintenance of the aircraft? It was owned by a real estate-related firm and managed by a company specializing in aircraft maintenance. It was only in May that the aircraft passed an annual state airworthiness test, which is mandatory.
In Sunday’s flight, the aircraft was rented out by the hour by the maintenance company to a pilot training company managed by the pilot. In a recent test flight conducted by the pilot prior to the fatal flight, there was said to be nothing wrong with the plane.
Residents express concern
The pilot also carried out a preflight safety check of the plane on Sunday. Examining the maintenance records with regards to the contents of inspections of the engine and other parts is important.
The pilot was certified as a commercial pilot and also held a national certificate that qualified him to train pilots.
Yet he had logged somewhere between 600 and 700 hours flight hours domestically, meaning he was not considered a veteran pilot. He reported to the airport that the purpose of Sunday’s flight was “to master the operation of an aircraft” to maintain his flying skills.
Another question for investigators is why the plane went off its scheduled flight path and turned to the left before crashing. One expert said, “The pilot was probably trying to return to the airport after a problem occurred in the aircraft and the engine suddenly lost power.”
The airport has more than 16,000 landings and takeoffs a year. As there is no air traffic controller at the airport, pilots take off or land at their own discretion.
Nearby residents had expressed concerns about possible accidents at the airport, which is used as a base for regular commercial flights to the Izu Islands and as a base for private aircraft.
The metropolitan government plans to ask pilots of private aircraft to refrain from taking off or landing at the airport until the cause of the accident becomes clear. This is appropriate when taking the residents’ concerns into account.
The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry must conduct a complete inspection of the safety measures taken by airports where small planes land or take off and of the maintenance system for aircraft.
(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, July 28, 2015)
Pilot in fatal Chofu crash licensed to instruct but plane not authorized for commercial flights
The pilot of a light plane that crashed into homes in Chofu, western Tokyo, on Sunday, killing him and two others ran a flight training company even though he lacked the necessary permission from the government, transport ministry officials said Monday.
Taishi Kawamura, 36, was among the three killed in the crash, which also claimed the lives of passenger Mitsuru Hayakawa, who was in his 30s, and Nozomi Suzuki, 34, who lived in one of the houses the plane slammed into, causing a massive fire.
The plane also carried three others, who were injured but survived. They were identified as Yasuyuki Tamura, 51, of Sango, Saitama Prefecture, Noriaki Moriguchi, 36, of Minato Ward, Tokyo, and Tsuyoshi Hanafusa, 35, of Tokyo’s Bunkyo Ward, NHK reported, citing hospital sources and Nippon Aerotech Co.
The police were working to identify the two others who lived in the affected homes in Chofu and were injured.
According to the police and Nippon Aerotech, which serviced the single-engine Piper PA-46 propeller aircraft, the plane had taken off from Chofu airport at 10:58 a.m. bound for Izu Oshima island, roughly 100 km to the south, and was scheduled to return to Chofu at around 4:30 p.m. the same day. The plane crashed at around 11 a.m., only two minutes after takeoff.
Kawamura, a resident of Kawasaki, ran the aviation training company SIP Aviation, which was based in Chofu. According to the transport ministry, Kawamura was a licensed flight instructor but had not been authorized by the ministry to use aircraft for an aviation business, as is necessary for any pilot training operations. Kawamura had acknowledged this, explaining on his website that, despite repeated negotiations with authorities, he had not been able to obtain the state permission.
“The aviation training our company provides is done through ‘club membership,’ not through a ‘plane-using operation,'” Kawamura wrote on his website, adding that his firm, from the outset, had tried on numerous occasions to obtain the required permission from municipal governments and ministries, but to no avail. Kawamura had offered a range of training courses, including a five-month program to become a private pilot for ¥3.24 million.
According to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the transport ministry, Kawamura had logged 1,500 hours of flight time. He had stated Sunday that he was embarking on an “orientation flight” to maintain pilot profficiency. Metro government officials said such flights are permitted for licensed pilots and the planes can carry passengers who are undergoing training to become pilots.
The flight was originally scheduled to take off at 10:45 a.m. and arrive at the island one hour later, transport ministry officials said. The departure was delayed by 13 minutes. The plane had fuel enough for several hours of flight.
The plane was not equipped with a voice recorder or a flight recorder.
At the time of the departure, the plane was operating under visual flight rules, which is common when weather and visibility are favorable, allowing the pilot to operate the aircraft based on his or her own judgment without having to depend on radioed instructions from air traffic controllers.
The Metropolitan Police Department opened an investigation into the crash on suspicion of professional negligence resulting in death and injuriy. The Japan Transport Safety Board sent three air accident investigators to the crash scene.
The plane previously sustained engine and other damage during a failed landing attempt at an airport in Sapporo in October 2004. It received an airworthiness certificate after repairs were carried out, transport ministry officials said.
The crash site is near Ajinomoto Stadium, which has a capacity of about 50,000 spectators, and an interchange of the Chuo Expressway.
Chofu airport was opened in 1941. It was later seized by the U.S. military and was returned to Japan in 1973, according to the metropolitan government, which took over the facility’s management in 2001.
The airport has only one runway, which is 800 meters long, and is used for regular flights to and from the islands of Izu Oshima and Miyakejima, both part of the Izu chain of islands under the administration of the metro government. It is also used by private and business aircraft.
According to the transport ministry, a propeller plane crashed into the playground of a Chofu junior high school, which is about 300 meters from the site of Sunday’s accident, just after taking off from Chofu airport on Aug. 10, 1980. All aboard the plane were killed in the crash.
Source: http://www.japantimes.co.jp
TOKYO—A small plane crashed into a quiet neighborhood in Tokyo on Sunday, killing the pilot, a passenger and a woman on the ground, while three people were pulled alive from the wreckage, firefighters and TV reported.
The single-engine propeller plowed into and set ablaze a row of houses shortly after takeoff from an airport used by small aircraft about 500 meters away in Tokyo’s western suburb of Chofu.
Television footage showed a mangled plane, broken up with its tail upside down, resting on a residential lot where dozens of firefighters were battling the blaze and treating the casualties.
Tokyo Fire Department officials said the three dead suffered heart and lung failures. Five others, including three passengers and two on the ground, were taken to hospitals but their conditions weren't immediately known.
The plane was flying to Izu Oshima Island, about 100 kilometers south of Tokyo in the Pacific Ocean, according to NHK public broadcaster.
Source: http://www.wsj.com
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