Chinese media outlet Xiaoxiang Morning Herald reported on the 5th that a Chinese passenger on an All Nippon Airways (ANA) passenger plane, regarding the aircraft 'near-miss (abnormal close approach)' at Haneda Airport, said 'there was neither compensation nor a goodwill gesture.'

According to reports, around 5:44 AM on the 4th, an ANA flight from Shanghai bound for Tokyo's Haneda Airport rapidly approached a Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism flight inspection aircraft in the airspace near Haneda Airport. Because the 'Airborne Collision Avoidance System' indicating a risk of collision activated on the ANA aircraft's side, the pilot performed evasive maneuvers. There were no injuries to the 197 passengers and crew on the ANA aircraft, nor to the 6 crew members on the inspection aircraft. The altitude difference between the two aircraft during the close approach was reportedly about 30 meters, and the ANA aircraft aborted its landing attempt and landed safely at 6:01 AM.

According to Xiaoxiang Morning Herald, Mr./Ms. Mei (pseudonym), who was on the ANA flight heading to Tokyo for work, recalled in an interview with the paper, 'The aircraft suddenly ascended, and I felt unwell. It was so sudden that I felt like vomiting.'

According to Mei, an in-flight announcement explained that they would 'land again in 5 minutes,' but the aircraft continued to ascend. After that, an announcement was made saying, 'We will land in 10 minutes.' At the time, there was no major panic among the passengers on board, and they only wondered, 'Why are we reattempting the landing?'

Mei recalled, 'I thought it was some kind of air traffic control issue at Haneda Airport, and we would circle once and then re-attempt the landing. However, the turn at that time was very sharp.' Even after landing, Mei was unaware of the 'near-miss' and only learned of the situation around 2:00 PM when a friend told them, 'The planes were on the verge of colliding.'

When the friend said, 'You had a narrow escape,' Mei remembered that they hadn't taken out travel insurance themselves, and fear welled up. Despite feeling unwell, Mei continued with the planned work. Afterward, Mei's supervisor at work reportedly expressed concern.

The round-trip air ticket for this trip to Japan had been arranged in advance, and Mei was scheduled to return home that night on an ANA flight. Mei stated that they had not taken out travel insurance for either leg of the trip and said, 'I want to consider getting insurance in the future.'

Furthermore, Mei said, 'There was no goodwill gesture or compensation provided by ANA to passengers,' and added, 'If there were Chinese staff, I would ask if there is any compensation.'

Meanwhile, Chinese netizens raised comments such as: 'Compensation? What are they talking about?', 'How could an airline compensate when the responsibility hasn't even been determined?', 'Regardless of the cause, I think it's inappropriate to immediately demand compensation whenever something happens,' and 'No accident occurred, and no abnormality was felt inside the plane, so why should ANA compensate? Would you demand compensation from an airline if a plane had a bird strike?'

Additionally, there were comments such as: 'Seriously, flying without even buying insurance?', 'Going abroad without insurance? If something happens and you need hospital treatment, it'll cost an insane amount,' as well as remarks like: 'Do you want to publicize that traveling to Japan is more dangerous than going to Cambodia or Russia?', 'The media is just jumping on the bandwagon and criticizing [Japan] for the sake of criticism,' and 'Always slandering others. Shameless. First, deal with your own country's airlines that never publish investigation results even when accidents occur.' (Translation/Editing by Kitada)