Why No One Died in Dramatic Japan Airlines Crash on Jan. 2, 2024

Whenever I fly, I find that I'm one of the very few people on a plane that pays attention to the flight attendants as they go over the emergency procedures, and it makes me crazy. It takes one person to not know what to do in the case of an emergency and put everyone's lives in jeopardy. An incident like the plane that struck an airliner at a Japan Airport earlier this month. Fortunately, all of the people on that airline PAID Attention to flight attendants, and had just 90 Seconds to Get out of the plane! Here's the story.

 

(Photo: A Japan Airlines plane collided with a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on January 2, 2024.JIJI PRESS / AFP)

Top Flight Attendant Explains Why No One Died in Dramatic Japan Airlines Crash 

There is a reason why you're shown the safety video before every fight, Sara Nelson told The Messenger. The 379 passengers of Flight 516 just proved why 

 01/03/24 Nick Gallagher, The Messenger

An eyewitness called the collision between a Japan Airlines (JAL) flight and a Japanese Coast Guard plane this week a "miracle," because all 379 passengers on the jetliner — as well as 12 crew members — made it out alive and relatively unscathed just minutes before it erupted into a fireball.

But Sara Nelson, a longtime United Airlines flight attendant who represents nearly 50,000 airline workers as the international president of the Association of Flight Attendants union, told The Messenger it wasn't merely by luck that hundreds escaped death in the fiery crash.

"The safety instructions have been developed over the years following investigations after aircraft incidents, after aviation tragedies," Nelson said.

The lessons from those investigations led directly to the rules that airlines now ask passengers to follow before and during each flight — often to their annoyance.

(Photo: A Japan Airlines plane collided with a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on January 2, 2024.JIJI PRESS / AFP)

Five of the six people aboard the Coast Guard prop plane were killed in the collision. They were on a mission to deliver food to western Japan, which had just been hit by a powerful earthquake that left some 60 people dead. But the JAL passengers were likely spared partly because they listened and followed the crew's instructions to a tee.

There's an explanation for every rule: Keeping window shades up during takeoff and landing, for instance, allows the flight crew to see out onto the plane's surroundings during an emergency.

Some airlines forbid passengers from taking off their shoes in flight so they can be prepared for an evacuation.

And perhaps most importantly, passengers are universally asked to leave their luggage and belongings behind during emergencies — since even one person blocking an aisle with a bulky suitcase can cause a massive loss of life when crews are working with only seconds to spare.

Flight attendants have to care for passengers' emotional and physical needs, often across multiple languages, and they are educated accordingly.

"You're trained to brush your teeth every night, and most people do it," Nelson said in an interview.

"It's the same thing that happens with flight attendants when there is an emergency. That emergency training and that repetition kicks in."

But the passengers on JAL-516 get an "A+" too, Nelson said, because preliminary reporting suggests they managed to carefully listen to instructions and remain in their seats even as smoke billowed into the cabin.

"Everyone has to follow the rules in order for everyone to be safe," Nelson said.

"In a situation like this where those 90 seconds are truly your deadline, it really took the flight attendants doing their jobs perfectly and the passengers following those instructions."