The two Japan Airlines jetliners that narrowly avoided a midair collision over Shizuoka Prefecture on Wednesday were just 10 meters away from each other at one point, the captain of one of the aircraft said Thursday.
Reports by JAL indicate that the pilots of the two aircraft, carrying a total of nearly 700 people, may have received confusing instructions from air traffic controllers.
The near-collision, involving a JAL Boeing 747 en route from Tokyo's Haneda airport to Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, and a JAL DC-10 heading to Narita airport from Pusan, South Korea, injured 42 passengers and crew members, some of them seriously, on the Naha flight when the pilot took radical evasive action.