TOKYO: An Asiana Airlines plane smashed into a communications antenna as it came in to land at a Japanese airport, footage showed on Wednesday, injuring 27 people in an accident with echoes of the Korean airline’s fatal 2013 crash in San Francisco.

Aerial footage from Hiroshima airport, in western Japan, showed the localiser -- a large gate-like structure, six metres high that sits around 300 metres from the start of the runway -- splintered, with debris spread towards the landing strip.

Sets of wheel marks were visible on the grass area in front of the runway, while large fragments of the localiser -- part of the instrument landing system -- were on the tarmac.

Several hundred metres away, skid marks showed the Airbus A320 had careered off the runway and rotated more than 90 degrees.

What appeared to be a chunk of the localiser was seen dangling from one wing and emergency escape chutes were deployed.

Those on board the flight from Incheon, near Seoul, to Hiroshima, spoke of terror and confusion.

“There was smoke coming out and some of the oxygen masks fell down. Cabin attendants were in such a panic and I thought ‘We are going to die’,” a woman told Japanese networks late on Tuesday, adding some people were bleeding.

A man wearing a neck brace said he “saw flames, and smoke filled the plane”.

All 73 passengers and eight crew evacuated safely, but 27 people were injured, Japanese officials said. San Francisco echoes: The South Korean carrier said 18 passengers -- 14 Japanese, two Koreans and two Chinese -- had been hurt. Only one of them had to stay overnight in hospital. There was no explanation for the discrepancy between Asiana and Japanese authorities.

An Asiana spokeswoman said told AFP in Seoul the firm was checking Japanese news reports that the flight was approaching the runway at a lower altitude than normal before it grazed the nearby communications tower.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2015

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