Japan Airlines collision shows why we can't be complacent about near-misses in the US

• A Japan Airlines flight collided into a plane on the runway while landing in Tokyo.
• The fiery crash is the kind of accident aviation experts have warned about in the US.

For months, aviation experts have said the US shouldn't get complacent about the amount of near-misses between planes at US airports.

Now, a collision in Japan has shown what their worst nightmare could look like.

A landing Japan Airlines commercial jet carrying 379 passengers and crew collided with a Coast Guard plane on the runway of Tokyo's Haneda airport on Tuesday evening.

The airport was stressed with extra flights due to a major earthquake that struck the country on New Year's Day. The Coast Guard plane was carrying relief supplies.

Everyone on board the Japan Airlines flight was safely evacuated as the plane burst into flames, but five of the six crew members on board the Coast Guard plane died.

The shocking crash could have been much worse — but it's still the kind of airport collision that US air safety experts have been concerned about as airspace gets even more crowded and air traffic crews are overworked.

In 2023, there were numerous near-misses at US airports, including a Delta and America jet nearly hitting each other in New York and a FexEx plane that had to call off a landing at the last minute to avoid a plane taking off.

A New York Times investigation later found that near-misses were happening multiple times each week in the US.

In response, the Federal Aviation Administration said the agency and the aviation community were "pursuing a goal of zero serious close calls, a commitment from the Safety Summit in March."

At that summit, Secretary of Transporation Pete Buttigieg said there had been an "uptick in serious close calls."

The root causes behind the near-misses in the US and the Japan Airlines collision may differ. The Times investigation found that overworked staff and worker shortages were likely to blame for the close calls in the US.

Japanese authorities haven't said what caused the collision in Tokyo.

Still, air travel remains largely safe; the fact that everyone on the Japan Airlines plane survived is solid proof.

Experts previously told Business Insider that the FAA is the gold standard of air safety worldwide and were confident the agency would sort out the issues.

The rate of runway incidents has also been decreasing since the pandemic, BI's Taylor Rains previously reported, and the FAA's renewed attention on the problem will be an important step toward addressing concerns.

But just because US air travel is historically safe doesn't mean mistakes can't happen — or that the US should get complacent.

"We have been in a stretch of historical unprecedented safety," Airline pilot and aerospace expert Kathleen Bangs told BI's Taylor Rains. "And, what that means is there can be a tendency for any system to get complacent when things are going so well."

The US hasn't had a deadly commercial airline accident in over a decade. Neither had Japan — until Tuesday.