A passenger airplane and a Japanese coast guard plane collided on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday and burst into flames.
Transport minister Tetsuo Saito confirmed that every one 379 occupants of Japan Airways flight JAL-516 bought out safely earlier than the airplane was totally engulfed in flames. The pilot of the coast guard airplane additionally escaped, however 5 crew members died, Mr Saito mentioned.
Native TV video confirmed a big eruption of fireplace and smoke from the aspect of the Japan Airways airplane because it taxied after touchdown. The realm across the wing then caught hearth. Footage an hour later confirmed the airplane absolutely on hearth. The JAL airplane was an Airbus A-350 that had flown from Shin Chitose airport, close to the town of Sapporo, to Haneda, the transport minister mentioned.
Coast guard spokesperson Yoshinori Yanagishima mentioned its airplane was MA-722, a Bombardier Sprint-8. The airplane, which is predicated at Haneda, had been resulting from head to Niigata to ship aid items to residents affected by an earthquake within the area on Monday that killed at the least 48 individuals.
Swede Anton Deibe, 17, who was a passenger on the Japan Airways airplane, instructed Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that “your complete cabin was crammed with smoke inside a couple of minutes. We threw ourselves down on the ground. Then the emergency doorways had been opened and we threw ourselves at them”.
“The smoke within the cabin stung like hell. It was a hell. We do not know the place we’re going so we simply run out into the sphere. It was chaos,” added Anton, who was travelling along with his mother and father and sister.
Mr Saito mentioned Haneda is at present closed whereas the collision is underneath investigation by aviation security investigators and police, however that they’re doing their greatest to reopen the airport on Wednesday and even sooner.
He added that officers are doing their utmost to stop any delays within the aid items supply and different operations for the disaster-hit area. Haneda is without doubt one of the busiest airports in Japan, and many individuals journey over the brand new 12 months holidays.