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Charter plane nearly hits Tokyo Tower
Pilots will be told to be more vigilant about staying on course while flying above the Japanese capital after a charter plane reportedly strayed within 200 meters (220 yards) of a major landmark last month, an official said Tuesday. An Orient Thai Airways chartered jet landing at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Sept. 19 veered off course and took an unusually low-level cruise above downtown Tokyo that included a flyby past Tokyo Tower, Japan's 333-meter (1090-foot) replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, according to local media reports Monday. Transport ministry official Yasuhiro Taniguchi acknowledged the incident had occurred and said it was probably due to the pilot's unfamiliarity with two routes regularly used by flights. He insisted that the flight had not posed any danger. But he said authorities were considering making clearer recommendations in flight manuals about which routes pilots should take. ``We must consider changing the description (in published guidelines) ... so that it states more clearly the routes that pilots should take,'' said Taniguchi, who is with the ministry's air traffic control division. The plane, a Boeing 747-200, was carrying no passengers during the incident and was heading to Haneda before flying to Phuket, a popular Thai resort, according to the daily Mainichi Shimbun. The daily said the airline had decided to suspend the pilot and retrain the
crew after the incident. |
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