passenger jet and a Maritime Self-Defense Force patrol aircraft nearly collided Tuesday over an island south of Tokyo, ANK officials told the transport ministry on Saturday.
In the notice to the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry, ANK said its Boeing 737 was involved a near miss with the P-3C patrol aircraft, but no one aboard either aircraft was injured.
According to the pilot of ANK Flight 821, the two planes came as close as 30 meters to one another.
The MSDF did not report the incident because it deemed there was no danger of a collision. The ministry's aircraft accident inquiry commission is opening an investigation.
Tuesday's incident occurred just as the ANK jet, carrying 62 passengers and crew, was about to land on the island of Hachijojima. The MSDF plane was carrying a crew of nine.
The ANK plane departed Tokyo's Haneda airport on Tuesday morning. The patrol craft had flown from its Atsugi base in Kanagawa Prefecture.
At 8:30 a.m. Tuesday, the ANK plane's Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System sounded when it was about 11 km southwest of Hachijojima airport at an altitude of about 300 meters.
In response to the warning, the plane ascended and was able to land at the second attempt.
The crew could not see the MSDF plane due to the clouds, but the radar system said the military aircraft was just 30 meters below it.