Jet plane collides with aircraft at airport but passengers make 'miracle' escape
Terrified passengers were seen running for their lives after a plane erupted in flames when it landed at Tokyo Airport this morning.
Bright orange flames engulfed the Japan Airlines aircraft as it came into Haneda Airport in the Japanese capital. Emergency vehicles raced along the tarmac to deal with the pulsing inferno after the flight collided with a Japanese coastguard aircraft.
Local TV broadcast images of a large eruption of fire and plumes of thick black smoke billowing into the air as the plane taxied on the runway. The area around the wing - where the engines are situated - then caught fire. Another video showed the moment the jumbo suddenly snapped in two as the molten steel broke due to the searing temperatures.
The plane may have collided with a coastguard aircraft at Haneda Airport in Tokyo (JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)Five of the passengers on the coastguard aircraft have died, with the pilot being the only person on board to survie. The plane was on its way to deliver desperately-needed aid packages to areas affected by the earthquakes that struck the country yesterday, toppling buildings and leaving countless residents trapped under the rubble.
The Japan Airlines plane, with the flight number JAL 516, had taken off from Hokkaido, with officials saying there were 379 people on board. Though there were no fatalities, "dozens" of passengers required medical treatment, but the extent of their individual injuries is yet to be reported. Officials have confirmed that they all escaped without life-threatening injuries. All runways at the busy airport are now closed, reports say. One witness recalled seeing a plane "explode" in front of them.
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Footage from inside the plane showed the moment the plane burst into flames. (Twitter)
Passengers ride rubber slides down to safety on the tarmac (Twitter)Another clip showed fire crews trying desperately to get the blaze under control as they doused it with streams of water. The fire had spread to cover most of the plane. Seventy fire engines were sent to tackle the raging inferno. Footage from inside the plane showed the moment the plane burst into flames. Passengers were seen evacuating the plane on inflatable slides and racing away from the burning plane, which is now almost entirely-destroyed by the aircraft.
All of the 379 passengers on board were evacuated, Japan Airlines confirmed, as well as the additional 12 crew members. The Captain also managed to escape.
Fumio Kishida, Japan's prime minister, told reporters at a press conference that a commercial aircraft collided with a coastguard plane, which was carrying five people who died.
"It is a very disappointing and saddening situation," he says, adding his "heartfelt condolences".
He says he would like "to express my heartfelt gratitude for the efforts" to evacuate the passenger plane.
Two hours after the plane landed on the runway, erupting in flames as it collided with a smaller plane, the aircraft and its wreckage are still on fire. The jet is now no more than a gutted shell, with huge smoke plumes continuing to snake into the sky as firefighters desperately try to bring it under control.
Passengers flee in terror from the flaming wreck (AFP via Getty Images)Anton Deibe, 17, who was travelling on the Japan Airlines plane with his parents and sister, said the plane became like "hell" when the blaze took hold.
He told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that “the entire cabin was filled with smoke within a few minutes”.
He said: “We threw ourselves down on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we threw ourselves at them.
“The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was hell. We have no idea where we are going so we just run out into the field. It was chaos.”
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The plane engulfed in a ball of flames as it came in to land (AP)Former commercial pilot Roger Whitefield told Sky News: "We have just witnessed a miracle The way they got all those passengers off that aeroplane is almost beyond belief."
He reported seeing images of smoke pouring our of one of the rear doors, which would've made it close to zero visibility. For the crew to get all the passengers out, it's a miracle. There's no two ways about it," he told sky.
The plane, with the flight number JAL 516, had taken off from Hokkaido (sky)Haneda is one of Japan's busiest airports and a key travel hub for people travelling across the country during the New Year holidays.
It's the second disaster in recent days to hit the Asian archipelago after a 7.6-magnitude earthquake tore through the country, triggering tsunamis and leaving entire neighbourhoods flattened.
NHK quoted JAL as saying it believed its plane was hit by another aircraft, possibly a Japan coastguard plane. Japan's coastguard said it is checking reports about a collision between its aircraft and the JAL flight on fire. Details have now emerged suggesting that the coastguard pilot managed to report back to his base after the collision. Transport officials are continuing their analysis and will be interviewing crew aboard the JAL flight for more information.
The fire comes following an incredibly safe year for commercial aviation, as fewer aircraft accidents and deaths were recorded in 2023 than ever before.
An infographic of the distance between the crash site and the disaster relief site (Anadolu via Getty Images)In the previous 12 months, there were only two fatal accidents compared with six in 2022, according to the Independent.
According to flight-tracking service, Flight Radar 24, the accident took place at exactly 5.47pm as the Japan Airlines flight came in to land. The coastguard aircraft is a De Havilland Canada DHC-8-315Q MPA - more commonly known as a Bombardier Dash-8 - which was not fitted with a modern ADS-B transponder.
The lack of transponder could have been a problem, because they're used to transmit pinpoint accurate information about where the aircraft is to controllers on the ground, and to other aircraft, reports Sky News. The technology has proven far more accurate than traditional radar surveillance.
Former air traffic controller Michele Robson supported this theory, suggesting that the collision may have been caused by a runway incursion, like the coastguard craft being on the tunway at the incorrect time or place.
70 fire trucks were sent to tackle the blaze (JIJI PRESS/AFP via Getty Images)She called for a thorough invesstigation to avoid incorrect conclusions, but said there were a number of reasons why the larger plane may have been unaware of the coastguard plane on the runway. These included the low visibility due to darkness, or the lack of ADS-B transponder.
Usually, all flights from a large international airport would carry such devices, but due to the emergency situation playing out with the earthquake relief, the requirement may have gone unnoticed.
She told Sky News that without the transponder, the coastguard plane wouldn't be as visible if it moved incorrectly on the runway.
The two late-afternoon arrivals from London Heathrow were unaffected by the blaze and touched down as normal at Haneda Airport. However, passengers from both flights will have been going through the airport, completing passport checks and picking up luggage, while the crash was happening on the runway outside.
All arrivals and departures have been cancelled while those still in the air had to be diverted.
Japan's minister of land, transport and infrastructure sough to reassure the public and flight passengers, saying he's "sure that the people of Japan will have concerns" about the accident. But "the root cause of this accident is known yet", he said.
He says we are "trying our best to try and resume operations from tomorrow onwards, back to normal timetable".
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