An Air China passenger plane landed at Haneda airport in Tokyo on Saturday despite instructions from the air traffic controller to abandon and reattempt the landing, officials said.

The transport ministry said Monday it has inquired with Air China Ltd. about the incident.

According to the ministry, the air traffic controller gave Air China Flight 181, originating in Beijing, permission to land at about 1:15 p.m. but then called for a reattempt of the landing due to the possibility of another aircraft remaining on the runway.

The pilots asked for the instruction to be repeated and were told again to go around, but they proceeded to land anyway.

With the preceding aircraft already off the runway, the Air China airplane landed safely.

The ministry is investigating the possibility that the pilots could not hear the instructions clearly.