The Civil Aviation Bureau of Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has issued a business improvement recommendation to All Nippon Airways (ANA) and a warning concerning the duties of its safety management supervisor.
On November 27, 2025, during the refilling of hydraulic fluid following a parking brake valve replacement at Osaka International Airport (Itami Airport), maintenance personnel mistakenly used a type of hydraulic fluid that ANA itself prohibits. Even after realizing the mistake, the mechanic arbitrarily interpreted the company’s internal rules to conclude that there was no problem, created maintenance records that did not reflect the facts, and allowed the aircraft to operate without carrying out the necessary corrective actions. Later, for the purpose of concealment, when replacing part of the hydraulic fluid with the correct one, the mechanic intentionally did not create maintenance records for that work.
In a separate incident on November 14, 2025, at Narita International Airport, a mechanic who had received a report of damage to a cargo rail in the cargo hold of a freighter aircraft judged it to be a “minor defect” without intentionally checking the company’s internal rules, and allowed the aircraft to operate without performing the required repairs.
Both cases constitute violations of the operations manual and maintenance manual approved under Japan’s Civil Aeronautics Act, and it was also confirmed that the actions were carried out intentionally. On that basis, the authorities determined that there was a high degree of individual malicious intent.
The Civil Aviation Bureau has instructed ANA to consider and formulate necessary measures to prevent recurrence and to report back by May 15.
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