The transport ministry has ordered Japan Airlines to revise measures it came up with last April to prevent operational errors, following a string of mishaps since late last year, ministry sources said Monday.
The Land, Infrastructure and Transport Ministry on Jan. 9 summoned Katsuo Haneda, JAL vice president in charge of safety, and ordered him to resubmit the airline's accident-prevention measures by the end of this month, according to the sources.
In April, JAL pledged to review procedures and manuals for flight operations and aircraft servicing, to improve communication between management and employees and to re-emphasize the importance of safety.
But two blunders by JAL, both stemming from human error, in the past month prompted the ministry to order additional steps.
On Dec. 26, an aircraft operated by Japan Asia Airways, part of the JAL group, took off from Narita airport on a flight to Taipei with one of its emergency evacuation slides disabled. Flight attendants failed to detect the problem during preflight checks.
JAL made a similar error last March, which led the ministry to order JAL to improve its operations.
On Jan. 7, a JAL passenger plane flew from Osaka to Kagoshima with one of its two engine thrust reversers not functioning after the maintenance crew forgot to remove the safety pin that locks down the reverser.
JAL had a similar maintenance problem last July.
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