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What: All Nippon Network/Air Nippon Boeing 737-800 en route from Nagoya to Asahikawa
Where: Asahikawa Japan
When: Oct 26 2010
Who: 57 passengers and crew
Why: A controller at the Sapporo Area Control Center apparently forgot about minimum altitudes and instructed pilots of the All Nippon Network/Air Nippon jet to drop to 1,500 meters.
Area aircraft are not allowed below 3,000 meters.
Thirty minutes outside of Asahikawa, the plane instigated a EGPWS terrain warning which directed the crew to climb. The pull-up alarm alerts 20-30 seconds prior to projected ground impact.
The minimum safe altitude warning was triggered because over 2,197-meter Mt Pippu in Hokkaido. The plane corrected its height from (up to as close as) 220 meters above the peak to a greater clearance and made a safe landing thirty minutes later.
The Japan Transport Safety Board is investigating the incident.
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