- Japan Airlines plane in flames on runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport
A Japan Airlines plane burst into flames after an apparent collision with a smaller coastguard aircraft on the runway at Tokyo’s Haneda airport.
All 379 passengers and crew on board were evacuated but five of the six crew on the coastguard plane died, police said. The captain was injured.
Footage showed flames engulfing the airliner. The runway was also alight.
Fire crews are still battling to douse the blaze on the plane, which arrived from Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido.
Japan Airlines Flight 516 departed from Sapporo’s New Chitose airport at 16:00 local time (07:00 GMT) and was scheduled to land at Haneda at 17:40.
“We are currently assessing the extent of the damage,” the airline said, according to a report by public broadcaster NHK.
Police in Tokyo confirmed reports that the five coastguard crew members had died, and said the pilot was severely injured.
What caused the collision remains unclear. The coastguard said an investigation was under way to establish how and at what time the two aircraft came into contact with each other.
Earlier, Japan Airlines had said its plane collided with the coastguard plane after landing, NHK reported.
The coastguard aircraft was heading to Niigata airport from Haneda to help with the rescue and relief mission following Monday’s earthquake in Ishikawa. It was one four planes on a mission to the quake site.
TV footage showed multiple fire trucks at the scene as smoke and flames billowed from the plane.
One woman posted a picture of a huge crowd watching the scene unfold.
“I was on board. I’m safe. Thank goodness,” she wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.
Haneda airport closed all its runways after the incident, Reuters said quoting a spokesperson for the airport.
