TOKYO -- The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport issued an order to air traffic controllers across Japan on Thursday to pay close attention to securing air traffic safety, ministry officials said.

The order was issued after Wednesday's near-collision incident involving two Japan Airlines Co. (JAPNY) airplanes that injured 42 passengers and crew members, some of them seriously, Kyoto reported.

The two planes were carrying nearly 700 people altogether and flew within just 10 meters (33 feet) of each other over central Japan. The incident was apparently caused by confused signals from air traffic controllers, the captain of one flight said Thursday in a report to the government.

A JAL Boeing 747 flight was flying from Tokyo to Naha, Okinawa Prefecture, and a JAL DC-10 was heading to Narita airport from Pusan, South Korea. There were no injuries on the DC-10 flight.

In a post-accident report filed with the transport ministry on Thursday, the Boeing flight pilot, Makoto Watanabe, 40, indicated that the two planes avoided a collision by just 10 meters when they were flying 11,000 meters above Yaizu, Shizuoka Prefecture. "At the closest point, the altitude difference was 10 meters; lateral distance none," the report said.

Transport ministry officials said the post-accident report filed by the DC-10 pilot, Tatsuyuki Akazawa, 45, also indicated the two planes missed each other by a whisker. "Altitude difference little, lateral distance none," Mr. Akazawa's report said.

The incident occurred early Wednesday evening. The Boeing Flight 907 was ascending to a cruising altitude of 11,300 meters, while the DC-10 Flight 958 was descending from 11,900 meters to prepare for landing at the New Tokyo International Airport in Narita, Chiba Prefecture, transport ministry officials said.

Both planes were equipped with the Traffic Collision Avoidance System, a computerized device that would alert pilots when they were flying too close to each other.

Police on Thursday inspected the Boeing at Haneda airport and collected a digital flight data recorder and voice recorder from the cockpit for a probe on suspected professional negligence.

Investigators will question the captains of both flights, said to be veteran pilots, and air traffic controllers and look into flying conditions of the two planes together with the transport ministry's Aircraft Accident Investigation Commission, police said.

Ministry officials said air traffic communications records kept at the Tokyo Air Traffic Control Center, based in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, show that air traffic controllers repeatedly used wrong flight numbers in telling the pilots of the two airplanes to change course.

The official in charge of the two flights, a 26-year-old man in his third year of training as an air traffic controller, first realized that the flight paths of the two planes were too close and initiated warnings to the two pilots under the supervision of a 32-year-old controller who served as his coach.

According to air traffic communications records released by the transport ministry, the male air traffic controller twice ordered the Boeing 747 to lower its attitude and the DC-10 to turn right.

As there was no response, the coach broke into the radio channel and told " Flight 957" to immediately lower its altitude.

The record shows that the coach again misspoke the flight number when the Boeing 747 pilot radioed in that there was an alert on the aircraft's collision avoidance system and he was descending. "Roger, flight 908," she said, in a message meant for the Boeing flight 907 pilot.

Moments later, the DC-10 flight 958 pilot reported to air traffic control that alert also sounded on his collision avoidance system, and the trainee controller responded, "Roger, flight 908." "The situation was extremely dangerous," Mr. Watanabe told air traffic control after the near-fatal collision was averted. Analysts said that had the Boeing not dived to avoid a collision, "the worst ever accident in aviation history" could have occurred.

The Boeing 747 was carrying 411 passengers and 16 crew members, and the DC-10 had 250 passengers and crew members on board.