TOKYO (AP) — A big passenger plane and a Japanese coast guard plane collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday and burst into flames, killing 5 folks aboard the coast guard plane, officers stated.
All 379 folks on Japan Airlines flight JAL-516 acquired out safely earlier than the Airbus A350 was absolutely engulfed in flames, Transport Minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed.
The pilot of the coast guard’s Bombardier Dash-8 plane escaped however the 5 crew members died, Saito stated. The plane was making ready to take off to ship help to an space affected by a significant earthquake on Monday, officers stated.
Television footage confirmed an orange fireball erupting from the Japan Airlines plane because it collided whereas touchdown, and the airliner then spewed smoke from its aspect because it continued down the runway. Within 20 minutes, all passengers and crew members slid down emergency chutes to get away.
A Japan Airlines plane is on fireplace on the runway of Haneda airport on Tuesday, Jan. 2, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan. The passenger plane collided with a Japanese coast guard plane and burst into flames on the runway of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday, officers stated. (Kyodo News through AP)
As firefighters tried to place out the blaze with streams of water, the world across the passenger plane’s wing caught fireplace. The flames unfold all through the plane, which finally collapsed. The fireplace was extinguished after about six hours.
Tuesday’s accident was the primary extreme injury to an Airbus A350, among the many business’s latest giant passenger planes. It entered business service in 2015. Airbus stated in a press release it was sending specialists to assist Japanese and French officers investigating the accident, and that the plane was delivered to Japan Airlines in late 2021.
The A350 had flown from Shin Chitose airport close to the town of Sapporo, the transport minister stated.
The fireplace is more likely to be seen as a key take a look at case for airplane fuselages constructed from carbon-composite fibers, such because the A350 and the Boeing 787, as an alternative of typical aluminum skins.
“We don’t know that much about how composites burn,” stated security marketing consultant John Cox. “This is the most catastrophic composite-airplane fire that I can think of. On the other hand, that fuselage protected (passengers) from a really horrific fire — it did not burn through for some period of time and let everybody get out.”
JAL Managing Executive Officer Tadayuki Tsutsumi advised a information convention late Tuesday that the A350 was making a “normal entry and landing” on the runway, with out specifying the way it collided with the coast guard plane. Noriyuki Aoki, additionally a managing govt officer at JAL, stated the airline maintains that the flight had acquired permission to land from aviation officers.
Police are anticipated to research the accident on suspicion {of professional} negligence, NHK tv reported.
Coast guard spokesperson Yoshinori Yanagishima stated its Bombardier Dash-8 plane, which is predicated at Haneda, had been as a result of head to Niigata to ship reduction items to residents affected by a lethal earthquake within the area on Monday. The turboprop Dash-8 is extensively used on short-haul and commuter flights.
The coast guard pilot reported to his base that his plane exploded after colliding with the business plane, Vice Commander Yoshio Seguchi advised reporters.
Shigenori Hiraoka, head of the Transport Ministry Civil Aviation Bureau, stated the collision occurred when the JAL plane landed on certainly one of Haneda’s 4 runways the place the coast guard plane was making ready to take off. Transport security officers have been analyzing communication between aviation management officers and the 2 plane and deliberate to interview JAL officers to find out what led to the collision.
Hiraoka praised JAL for “taking appropriate procedures” to safely evacuate all passengers and crew members.
Swede Anton Deibe, 17, a passenger on the Japan Airlines plane, advised Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that “your complete cabin was stuffed with smoke inside a couple of minutes. We threw ourselves down on the ground. Then the emergency doorways have been opened and we threw ourselves at them.
“The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was a hell. We have no idea where we are going so we just run out into the field. It was chaos,” Deibe added.
Another passenger advised NHK tv that cabin attendants have been calm and advised everybody to go away their baggage behind, then all lights went off and the temperature contained in the cabin began rising. The passenger stated she was afraid she won’t get off the plane alive.
All passengers and crew members slid down the escape chutes and survived. Some passengers advised media interviews that they felt relieved solely after reaching a grassy space past the tarmac.
JAL stated 4 passengers have been taken to a medical facility. NHK stated 14 different folks have been injured.
Cox, the protection marketing consultant, stated the cabin crew “did a remarkably great job” getting passengers out of the plane.
“It shows good training,“Cox said. “And if you look at the video, people are not trying to get stuff out of the overheads. They are concentrating on getting out of the airplane.”
The transport minister stated officers have been doing their utmost to forestall any delays within the supply of reduction items to earthquake-hit areas. Transport officers stated the airport’s three different runways had reopened.
Haneda is the busier of two main airports serving the Japanese capital, with many worldwide and transcontinental flights. It is especially favored by enterprise vacationers as a result of its proximity to central components of the town.
The twin-engine, twin-aisle A350 is utilized by a variety of long-haul worldwide carriers. More than 570 of the plane are in operation, in keeping with Airbus.
JAL operates 16 of the A350-900 model plane, in keeping with its web site. It just lately introduced particulars of 13 of the newer A350-1000 variant it plans to deliver into service, saying it is going to change into “the airline’s new flagship for international service after nearly 20 years.” The first of these planes arrived just a few weeks in the past, slated for the Haneda-New York JFK route.
The International Air Transport Association commerce group stated on the X social media platform that its ideas have been with these aboard the 2 plane, saying that “the last two days have been difficult for Japan.”
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Yamaguchi reported from Kyoto, Japan. Adam Schreck in Osaka, Japan, Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and David Koenig in Dallas contributed to this report.
