Incident Details
On Thursday, December 22, 2016, at 00:39 Japan Standard Time, Peach Aviation Co., Ltd. flight 1028, an Airbus A320-214 registered as JA811P, was approaching Tokyo International Airport. The aircraft was conducting a VOR-A approach intending to land on runway 16L. However, the flight crew mistakenly attempted to approach runway 23, which was closed at the time. The aircraft descended to an altitude of approximately 480 ft about 5 nautical miles east of the airport. An air traffic controller in the control tower noticed the situation and instructed the crew to go around. The crew complied and subsequently landed on runway 16L at 00:55 JST after radar-vectored visual approach. There were 164 persons on board, including the captain, five other crewmembers, and 158 passengers. Nobody was injured and there was no damage to the aircraft.
Probable Cause
The Japan Transport Safety Board determined that the serious incident occurred because the aircraft, while conducting a VOR-A approach to land on runway 16L, mistakenly tried to approach runway 23, which was closed. This happened because the advance preparations for the VOR-A approach by the captain and the first officer were not sufficient, and they could not recognize the runway change instruction as a threat, failing to manage workloads, properly monitor, and advise.