Japan Airlines jet in flames, all 379 on board escape
New Delhi: A Japanese passenger jet was engulfed in flames after colliding with another plane while landing at Tokyo’s Haneda airport on Tuesday. Scary visuals of the plane crash showed a Japan Airlines flight skidding down the runway fully ablaze.
The accident was a result of a collision with a Japanese Coast Guard plane, which also caught fire.
The plane — Japan Airlines flight 516 — was carrying 379 people, including 12 crew members. All were evacuated safely, news agencies reported.
The Japanese passenger jet hit a Coast Guard aircraft before erupting into a fireball. The exact circumstances of the collision were unclear. However, the Japanese Coast Guard said it was investigating the possibility that one of its MA722 fixed-wing aircraft was involved in the collision.
Five of the six crew of the coast guard aircraft have died. A coast guard spokesperson earlier said five of the crew were unaccounted for but that the captain had escaped.
Visuals and photographs of the crash showed the Japanese airliner completely engulfed in flames with fire and smoke billowing out of the jet’s windows.
Local media reported that JAL flight 516 was an Airbus A-350 passenger jet and had flown out of Shin Chitose airport in Japan to Tokyo’s Haneda, which is one of the country’s busiest airports.
The Haneda airport shut operations on all runways following the incident.