Faced with an urgent need to expand the capacity of Haneda airport ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, the government is planning to break a longtime taboo: routing flights low over densely populated residential areas of the capital and its suburbs.
In a move called by one industry official "opening Pandora's box," the transport ministry is mulling changing flight path regulations so aircraft buzz as low as 1,000 feet (about 300 meters) above the ground as they descend into Haneda, which is located in Ota Ward and officially called Tokyo International Airport.
Currently the published, and controller initiated, traffic patterns for Haneda keep aircraft over Tokyo Bay, requiring landing planes to turn onto final approach before going over land and those taking off to turn away from land once sufficiently airborne.
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