Kyodo News via AP
The burned out Japan Airlines plane is seen at Haneda airport on Wednesday, Jan. 3, 2024, in Tokyo, Japan. The large passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard aircraft collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing several people aboard the coast guard plane, officials said.
Friday, Jan. 5, 2024 | 2 a.m.
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Tragedy struck Japan for the second time in as many days Tuesday as five members of the Japanese coast guard died in a fiery collision between a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 operated by the Japanese coast guard and a much larger Airbus A350-900 passenger plane on a Tokyo runway. Underscoring the tragedy was the mission of the coast guard flight, which was delivering aid to victims of a powerful earthquake that killed dozens of people in the Ishikawa prefecture on Japan’s west coast on New Year’s Day.
However, while the deaths of five service members in the line of duty is unquestionably tragic, the loss of life could have been much worse. As one tragedy unfolded, another was averted.
Over the course of 18 minutes, the crew of Japan Airlines Flight 516 stayed calm as the left wing of the aircraft burst into flames and the cabin began to fill with smoke. According to reporting by The Wall Street Journal, passengers and crew initially struggled to open emergency evacuation doors and a failed PA system made communicating difficult. Yet, the cabin crew members remained poised and decisive, prying the doors open while convincing passengers to leave personal belongings behind and exit the craft in a quick and orderly manner.
As a result of the crew’s courage and calm, all 367 passengers and 12 crew members successfully escaped the A350 with no loss of life — the final evacuation occurring just seconds before an explosion engulfed the aircraft’s other wing and began to collapse the fuselage. Initial reports indicate that fewer than two dozen people suffered injuries, with most of those being relatively minor forms of scrapes, bruises and sprains.
Hollywood could not have scripted a more dramatic moment, nor more sympathetic heroes.
Flight attendants earn their living in one of the most abusive and demanding professions in the modern world. They endure all of the same uncertainties of air travel as passengers, including security checkpoints, canceled or delayed flights, and the lack of space and amenities on modern passenger planes. But they also face the additional responsibilities of calming angry, frustrated and restless passengers while working unpredictable shifts with what is often limited rest and no compensation for time spent on the ground or in the airport.
Instances of verbal and even physical assault against cabin crew members have skyrocketed in recent years, with more than 6,000 “unruly passengers” reported to the Federal Aviation Administration in 2021. While that number came down significantly in 2022 and 2023, incidents of verbal and physical assault remain far higher than pre-COVID levels. According to the International Air Transport Association, globally, one in every 568 flights experiences a reportable incident of an unruly passenger. The FAA launched more than 800 investigations into incidents of “air rage” in the U.S. in 2022.
The violence, threats and abuse are a shocking display of “gratitude” for people who work tirelessly to keep us safe while soaring more than 10,000 feet above the ground at nearly 600 miles per hour.
Hardworking cabin crew members’ primary responsibility and focus is passenger safety, not being hospitality workers, which is a secondary role. This week’s collision in Tokyo demonstrated that in extreme circumstances where passenger safety is paramount, they also become first responders, fighting to save lives on the front lines of tragedy.
Those of us in cities like Las Vegas should be especially appalled at the lack of recognition and appreciation for airline flight crews. After all, these are our friends and neighbors, and they’re vital to the lifeblood of our city.
With six different airlines using Harry Reid International Airport as an operating base and more than a dozen more offering regular routes to and from Harry Reid, there are thousands of flight attendants, pilots and other cabin crew members who call Las Vegas home. Tens of thousands more likely see Las Vegas as a home away from home, as they regularly find themselves arriving on one of the hundreds of planes that move about the airport each day.
So, as you move about your life in the coming weeks, if you happen to find yourself on an airplane or in a conversation with a member of an airline cabin crew, be sure to thank them for bringing order to chaos and doing their level best to prevent tragedy in the skies.
