A collision occurred between a Japan Airlines plane and a Japan Coast Guard aircraft during the landing in Tokyo on Tuesday, resulting in the passenger jet bursting into flames. Tragically, Coast Guard members on the other plane, who were on their way to assist with earthquake relief efforts, lost their lives.
According to NHK, the public broadcaster, the airline reported the safe evacuation of all 367 passengers and 12 crew members from its plane at Haneda Airport. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida confirmed during a news conference that five crew members on the Coast Guard plane had unfortunately perished.
The Coast Guard members were en route to deliver supplies to the region affected by the powerful earthquake that struck western Japan on Monday, as mentioned by Prime Minister Kishida. He expressed deep regret and distress over the incident, offering profound condolences to the surviving families of the deceased Coast Guard members.
Despite the challenging circumstances, the airline received praise for successfully evacuating 367 passengers, a commendable feat under significant pressure. Paul Hayes, the director of air safety at Ascend, a British-based aviation consultancy, described it as a miracle that all passengers were able to disembark safely, attributing it to the likely excellent performance of the cabin crew.
A still image from a video posted on social media of passengers in a smoke-filled cabin aboard the Japan Airlines plane before they were evacuated. Credit...Social media, via Reuters
Prime Minister Kishida assured that government ministries would collaborate to prevent the crash from impacting earthquake relief efforts, following the recent earthquake that claimed a minimum of 48 lives.
NHK’s footage displayed the Japan Airlines plane, Flight 516, ablaze as it streaked across a runway. Departing from New Chitose Airport in Hokkaido, the plane was en route to land at Haneda at 5:40 p.m.
Live broadcasts after 6 p.m. captured firefighters attempting to extinguish flames pouring from the Airbus A350-900.
The Coast Guard plane involved in the collision was a fixed-wing MA722, as per Naoko Kobayashi, a Coast Guard representative.
Anton Deibe, a 17-year-old Swede and passenger on the plane, recounted to Aftonbladet that smoke filled the entire cabin within minutes of the collision. He described the passengers throwing themselves down and then toward the emergency doors.
During a late Tuesday news conference, Shigenori Hiraoka, director general of the civil aviation bureau at the transport ministry, expressed an inability to confirm collision details or communication between the planes and the air traffic control tower.
The Kyodo news agency of Japan quoted an unidentified passenger describing a sensation of hitting something, followed by an abrupt upward jerk, sparks outside the window, and the cabin filling with gas and smoke.
The wreckage of the burned Japan Airlines plane. Credit...Kyodo News, via Associated Press
Yoshio Seguchi, deputy director of the Japan Coast Guard, expressed apologies for the challenges resulting from the crash while providing limited information about the accident’s cause. Seguchi mentioned that the Coast Guard aircraft had commenced taxiing to the runway at approximately 4:45 p.m., approximately an hour before the collision occurred.