On October 25, 2024, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism issued a “severe warning” to ANA for failing to replace a low-pressure tire prior to flight NH1698 from Fukushima to Osaka on September 7, 2024.
The incident involved a maintenance worker dispatched from Osaka to Fukushima discovering a deflated tire on the right main landing gear of a Bombardier Dash 8 Q400. Following the discovery, the worker measured the tire pressure, with the result indicating the need for the tire to be replaced. Instead, the worker inflated the tire and allowed the flight to depart.
According to the warning issued by Japan Civil Aviation Bureau’s Director-General Ayumu Kitazawa to Kohei Tsuji, ANA’s Executive Vice President, Engineering & Maintenance Center, “the maintenance worker in question committed the act because there were no spare tires available at Fukushima Airport. It is recognized that the employee intentionally committed the violation.”
In addition to pointing out the violation, the warning also highlights the delay in the violation being reported to the company’s headquarters despite the tire having been replaced after the aircraft’s arrival in Osaka. “As a result, no necessary measures were taken to analyze the causes or prevent recurrence of the actions until your company’s organizational understanding of the actions on October 8,” said the warning while also mentioning the violation was not reported to the ministry until October 10, 2024.
The warning concludes that “This is thought to be due to a lack of safety management system for reporting safety information to the company and for identifying the causes and taking measures, and it is recognized that your company’s safety management system is not functioning properly.”
The Japan Civil Aviation Bureau instructed ANA to formulate corrective measures for preventing the recurrence of similar incidents in the future and report back to the ministry in writing by November 8, 2024.
