TOKYO: All 379 people aboard a Japan Airlines (JAL) plane escaped the burning airliner after a collision with a Coast Guard aircraft at Tokyo’s Haneda airport that killed five of six crew on the smaller craft on Tuesday.
Live footage on public broadcaster NHK showed the JAL Airbus A350 airliner burst into flames as it skidded down the tarmac shortly before 6pm. “I felt a boom like we had hit something and jerked upward the moment we landed,” a passenger told Kyodo news agency.
“I saw sparks outside the window and the cabin filled with gas and smoke.” All 367 passengers and 12 crew were evacuated from the blaze which destroyed the airliner.
At least 17 people on it were injured, NHK reported, citing the Tokyo Fire Department. Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that five of the Coast Guard aircraft’s crew had died while the captain of the plane had been injured.
A ministry official told a press briefing the JAL plane was attempting to land normally when it collided with the Coast Guard’s Bombardier-built Dash-8 maritime patrol plane on the runway.
There had been no reports of engine or other problems on the airliner before the landing, the official said. The Coast Guard said its plane was headed to Niigata on Japan’s west coast to deliver aid to those caught up in a powerful earthquake that struck on New Year’s Day, killing at least 55 people.
A JAL official told a press briefing it was the airline’s understanding that the flight had received permission to land, although he added that exchanges with flight control were still under investigation.
Video footage and images shared on social media showed passengers shouting inside the plane’s smoke-filled cabin and running across the tarmac after escaping via an evacuation slide.
“The cabin crew must have done an excellent job… It was a miracle that all the passengers got off,” said Paul Hayes, director of air safety at UK-based aviation consultancy Ascend by Cirium.
Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2024