TOKYO JAPAN – And plane passenger crashed into a Japanese Coast Guard aircraft on Tuesday and caught fire on the tarmac at Tokyo’s Haneda airport, officials said.
NHK TV reported that all passengers on Japan Airlines flight JAL-516, believed to be 379 people in total, escaped unharmed before the plane was completely engulfed in flames. The Japan Coast Guard said its pilot had managed to escape. NHK reported that the other five crew members have been found dead.
In video footage from local television it was possible to see fire and smoke coming out of the side of the Japan Airlines plane as it moved along a runway. The area around the wing then caught fire. An hour later, the shots showed the fuselage completely in flames.
NHK said the plane was an Airbus A-350 that flew from Shin Chitose Airport near the city of Sapporo to Haneda.
In later shots, firefighters were seen working to put out the fire. The flames had spread to much of the plane.
Yoshinori Yanagishima, a Coast Guard spokesman, confirmed the collision between the passenger jet and its flight MA-722, a Bombardier Dash-8.
Swede Anton Deibe, 17, a passenger on the Japan Airlines plane, told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that “the entire cabin filled with smoke within minutes. We threw ourselves on the floor. Then the emergency doors were opened and we rushed towards them.”
“The smoke in the cabin stung like hell. It was hell. We had no idea where we were going, so we just ran down the track. It was chaos,” added Deibe, who was traveling with his parents and her sister.
Kyodo said the coast guard plane, based in Haneda, was scheduled to leave for the city of Niigata to deliver supplies to residents affected by a deadly earthquake that struck the region on Monday, killing at least 48 people.
Haneda is one of the busiest airports in Japan. Many people travel during the New Year holiday.
Source: AP
