Japan flights
 

In light of the earthquake, have there been many cancellations yet?

QF21 delayed until 10am tomorrow - JQ en-route diverted to Guam.

JL772 from today diverted to Osaka.

Tomorrow's JQ12 (NRT-OOL) service has been cancelled.

From jetstar.com

Hey all this shakin has gone mad.

Chc, Japan had one few days ago, then off Bali.. Now this!

Sorry to say. I think this might be a big one also.


All the best to Japan and I SO hope my call proves to be wrong.

Kind regards,

Geoff

Just flew into　Ｏｓａｋａ　last night with my wife. All okay here at the moment. We had 5 nights booked in Tokyo from tomorrow but I have just cancelled as it is kaos there. The train services are out and people　are everywhere trying to　get home. Still in Japan for 9 days still might head there if there is the all clear. I was hoping to get to Haneda airport to get a photo of the ANA retro however that is the last thing on my mind with the tragedy that is happening. I wish all the best for the people of this wonderful country.

Yes Geoff this one is the biggest they have had according to the records. Seen footage of an airport here where the terminal is an island and the water is running half way up the boarding bridges. Does not look good for the east coast as they are expecting 10-12m high waves.

Sendai airport is well and truly broken.

There was an earthquake in China the day before that killed 25, on top of CHC, bali etc.

This Japanese earthquake is the 7th biggest on record, according to the USGS.

I'm glad I went through the CHC earthquake out of the two, to be honest.

Stay safe Tony. My wife is currently in LA. All beaches down the west coast are closed. They don't expect too much water, but she is staying tuned...

Thoughts are with the people in Japan...

I put this question to anyone.....

Regarding the airports and possible tsunami, the airport that is on the news at the moment with the wave going over the top of apron and subsequent pictures of the aftermath I noticed that no aircraft were present at any of the aerobridges or on the apron.

Were any swept away, or were they quickly towed or taxied to an area that is higher up? Remembering that they had only 15 mins between quake and when the tsunami hit.

And also to add to this long winded question. what is JASDF, and USAF's direction when a tsunami may be endangering the base they are operating from do they put everything up or what do they do?......

Jaryd,

I wondered the same thing, but looking at the timetable for Sendai Airport, it seems that by the luck of it there may not have been any aircraft there at the time of the quake.

I did see a photo of some light planes crushed with cars in the car park though.

There are only a handful of jetbridge gates at Sendai, and the Google satellite photo shows just 1 aircraft parked there - so it is possible that there weren't any large aircraft on the ground at the time.

Having taken the bullet train up to Sendai from Tokyo just over three weeks ago, it is surreal and frightening looking at the helicopter footage of the water sweeping through!

I would be interested to hear answers to this, too, and not just for the bases on the Japanese mainland - what about Andrews AFB in Guam?

Justin, judging by the times on the website, if the earthquake hit at 2:45pm local, it was during what appears to be just a 20 minute window of there being no aircraft on the ground!

Unfortunately I don't think there will be any flights in and out of Sendai for a little bit...
http://twitpic.com/48xezy

RIP to all the victims. Our hearts are heavy for you.

Andersen AFB is on one of the higher parts of the island. The end of then runway that goes out over the sea ends at a cliff. You can drive down the side (the right hand side of the photo) at base level, but then it goes down to sea level. As you can see from the photo thats quite some height!
It'd have to be an extreme tsunami for Andersen to put everything airborne.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...dersen-afb.jpg

Govt ex-Toyko flight due to arrive ~1.15pm today
 

Does anyone have confirmation of a Govt-arranged charter flight to get Aussies out of Tokyo – routed Tokyo to Cairns then onto Sydney? It was supposed to arrive 1.15pm today...

http://www.zeenews.com/Img/2011/3/12...uake-gh3-O.jpg
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lh...eqnno1_500.jpg
http://images.sympatico.ca/images/Fe...R2JS7N_640.jpg

http://komica7.dreamhosters.com/17/s...9839283336.jpg
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/images/news...0290174-p1.jpg
http://sankei.jp.msn.com/images/news...8260258-p2.jpg
http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/...V7gWt/x610.jpg

WOW! Thanks for the photos Torin, It really shows the devestation!

Here's some videos from YouTube on the tsunami at Sendai Airport.

From inside the terminal:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LrS1ITc2yF4

Aerial footage from NHK World:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8X8PxZocHHM

From CCTV footage of the aerobridges:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DSSssHxm4Y

The whole event just becomes more and more tragic.

Regards,

Geoff

Managed to get an early flight out of Osaka with Jetstar this Thursday. They were good enough not to charge any fees。Not that that would have been an issue at this stage. We are both a bit concerned over the spread of radiation. Everytime the goverment says, its all settled something blows up. We dont know enough about the situation so we think its best to　fly　home.

Just wanted to say thank you to all board members for maintaining and contributing to the board. It has come as a great source of news and information and providing updates while we have been here. The first place I found out about jetstar flights being delayed and diverted to Guam was on here. So Thanks again.

Anyone know why the Qantas flights to and from Sydney and Tokyo are operating via Hong Kong over the next few days?

Operating via HKG to overnight the crew, rather than in Narita.

QF021 was cancelled tonight.

May have something to do with 4 nuk reactors pooring out radiation!

Hey Kurt,
QF21 yesterday and today have both just been moved till the following morning. Perhaps it has something to do with the arrival time in NRT.

I thought about it last night and it could be that Qantas don't want any crew to overnight in Tokyo. Which is why they might fly to HKG, then change crew there so the new crew operate to Tokyo and fly straight back to HKG on the same day.

QF & JQ Narita Express Services now running Limited Stops
 

Due to Radiation threats in Tokyo, most Qantas Narita direct services have now become Limited Express via Hong Kong. Those services will first stop Hong Kong and then Narita. Refund, Reroute and Rebooking arrangements also applies.

Think that's because of staffing concerns to ensure no staff will be staying overnight in Japan by changing staff in Hong Kong?

However, that sounds strange as comparing this to JetStar:

As JetStar Narita services will now become Limited Stops via Osaka. What's the purpose for that? Perhaps the Union will need to do something to change the port they are stopping, or just Osaka is safe enough? If so then why Qantas services not stopping at Osaka as well and to take up a few extra hours going via Hong Kong?

I would guess that as QF don't fly to KIX they are going through HKG where they would have a crew base to swap crews.

JQ do fly to KIX and would have a crew base there so it makes sense. Also, many European airlines are going through KIX or NGO en route to NRT so would be taking up gates/slots/accommodation etc. Osaka is away from the danger at the moment and is not facing the transport or power restrictions of Tokyo.

Also just for my curiosity, is Limited Express service the correct terminology or one-stop direct flights? I've never heard it before for air travel, only for trains and sometimes long-distance buses.

Is fuel availability an issue in Narita? It looks as though some long haul international services to Narita that have not been cancelled are operating to and/or from another airport in Japan, most likely Osaka, or another airport in a country close by, such as Seoul, Bangkok, Hong Kong or Beijing.

There was a bit on CNN news, JAL are running inside and out with radiation detectors when there aircraft land in NRT.