First Flying landing accident at Aguni Airport

The First Flying landing accident at Aguni Airport (Daiichi Kōkū-ki Aguni Kūkō chakuriku shippai jiko) was an aviation accident that occurred on 28 August 2015. First Flying Flight 101 (Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter 400), from Naha Airport to Aguni Airport, departed the runway on landing at Aguni Airport and struck the airport perimeter fence. 11 of the 14 passengers and crew were injured, but there were no deaths.

The accident aircraft

The accident aircraft, a Viking Air DHC-6 Twin Otter 400, was built on 13 December 2014. It had flown 218 hours before the accident and had undergone a scheduled inspection 14 days before the accident. It had only just entered service on 2 August 2015 on First Flying's route linking Naha Airport and Aguni Airport. After its Japanese registration was cancelled in October 2016, the accident aircraft was shipped to Canada, its country of manufacture, and repaired. It obtained airworthiness certificates from both Japan and Canada and was registered in Japan again in July 2017.

Course of the accident

Flight 101 took off from Naha Airport at 8:38 and headed for Aguni Airport under visual flight rules. Because of the first officer's training for upgrade to captain, the captain sat in the right seat and the first officer in the left seat.

At 8:46 the pilots completed the pre-landing briefing. At 8:48 there was a conversation about the cloud conditions around the airport. The checklists for descent, approach and landing were performed, but there was no discussion of the nose-wheel steering mechanism.

At 8:54 the aircraft passed the threshold of runway 19 at Aguni Airport at 75 kn and touched down 4 seconds later. After touchdown there was a sound like tyres squealing, which continued until the collision. The captain felt the aircraft begin to veer to the right and, thinking the first officer was pressing the brake on one side, said “Don't press it”. The first officer, with no time to operate the reverse thrust, tried to control the aircraft using the rudder. The first officer used the foot brakes but could not stop, and the aircraft struck the airport perimeter fence.

As a result of the accident, all 14 passengers and crew were taken to hospital.

Cause of the accident

In its accident report, the Japan Transport Safety Board (JTSB) stated that because the first officer forgot the checklist and the captain did not properly monitor and point this out, the aircraft landed with the nose wheel deflected to the right. It also concluded that the first officer had not completed the classroom training and was flying with insufficient knowledge of the aircraft type, and was therefore unable to take appropriate action after the abnormality occurred.

Aftermath

First Flying received a business improvement order from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism for improper training, falsification of training records and the like.

Because of this accident, First Flying suspended the Naha–Aguni route. At the time of the accident flights from Aguni to Naha ran 3 round trips in 1 day, taking about 20 minutes. However, after the accident all flights were suspended, so the only way to get to Naha was the ferry, which made 1 round trip in 1 day, and with the journey taking 2 hours, day trips became difficult. On 12 July 2016 it emerged that 6 pilots at First Flying's Okinawa office had left the company after raising doubts about its safety arrangements. After the accident First Flying had tried to conduct DHC-6 flight training, but several pilots objected that “we should not fly until the cause is determined”. In response the company transferred the pilots who had objected. All 4 pilots ordered to transfer left First Flying in February, and another 2 in March, and with 1 more leaving at the end of July, there were concerns that the resumption of the Okinawa routes could be affected.

In November 2016, First Flying told the mayor of Aguni Village that it aimed to resume operations in autumn 2017. On 15 January 2018 First Flying resumed the Naha–Aguni route, but when the subsidy ran out in April of the same year it was forced to suspend it again. On 27 April First Flying announced its withdrawal from the Okinawa routes, and its office was also closed in June, so passenger flights to and from Aguni Airport disappeared. As a result, although the Aguni Airport terminal was renovated in May 2018, it remained without any routes, and villagers were calling for flights to resume soon. First Flying also gave up, for financial reasons, on launching 2 routes from Ishigaki Airport that it had been planning, effectively withdrawing from the Okinawa routes.

On 23 February 2018, the Naha Police Station referred the captain and first officer to prosecutors on charges including professional negligence resulting in injury. The Naha Police Station stated that the referral followed the accident report of the accident investigation committee, and that First Flying would not be referred. In response, in May of the same year the Japan Federation of Airline Crew Unions (ALPA Japan) submitted a written request to the Naha District Public Prosecutors Office not to take criminal action against the pilots.

On 9 May 2019, First Flying filed a lawsuit against Okinawa Prefecture in the Okinawa District Court seeking damages. In the complaint it claimed that after the accident at Aguni Airport it had asked for a subsidy for training costs but had been refused, and that when it informed the prefecture of its withdrawal the amount of the subsidy was sharply reduced, and it sought about 455,000,000 yen in damages. The breakdown of the claim included training costs, personnel costs and office expenses. In response, the prefecture commented that expenses incurred during the suspension period caused by the accident were not eligible for the subsidy.