TOKYO (AFP) – Five people on board a Japanese Coast Guard plane were killed after a collision with a Japan Airlines plane at Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on Tuesday.
Published on: 01/02/2024 – 13:19
3 minutes
Pictures broadcast by the NHK network showed a plane moving on the runway before fire broke out from the bottom of its fuselage and behind it.
The channel confirmed that 367 people were evacuated, including all passengers on board the Japan Airlines Airbus plane and 12 crew members. Kyodo News reported that eight children were among the plane’s passengers.
Japanese Transport Minister Tetsio Saito said, “With regard to the coast guard plane, we were informed that the pilot survived and five people were confirmed dead.”
The cause of the accident was not clear, but television reports indicated that the Airbus plane collided with a Coast Guard plane.
Jiji News Agency reported that the Coast Guard plane was scheduled to take off to participate in rescue efforts after a major earthquake struck central Japan on Monday. The earthquake that struck the Noto Peninsula killed at least 48 people.
Reports indicated that the civilian plane had just landed at Haneda Airport, coming from Sapporo Airport on the island of Hokkaido in the north of the country.
A Coast Guard official at Haneda Airport, one of the busiest in the world, said authorities were “scrutinizing the details.” He told Agence France-Presse, “It is not yet clear whether contact occurred. But it is certain that our plane was involved” in the accident.
Flames
Japan Airlines explained that the passenger plane either collided with another plane on the runway or a taxiway upon landing, according to what Kyodo reported.
Television recordings showed flames rising from the windows while rescue personnel worked to spray the plane before it was completely engulfed in flames.
Debris was also seen burning on the runway while reports spoke of the airport being closed.
More than 70 fire engines were deployed to put out the fire, according to NHK.
Japan has not witnessed serious air transport accidents over the past decades. Its worst disaster of this kind dates back to the year 1985, when a Japan Airlines plane on a flight between Tokyo and Osaka crashed in the Gunma region in the center of the country, killing 520 passengers and crew members.
This disaster is considered one of the worst to affect a single aircraft in the history of air transport.
Japan has not witnessed serious air transport accidents over the past decades. Its worst disaster of this kind dates back to the year 1985, when a Japan Airlines plane on a flight between Tokyo and Osaka crashed in the Gunma region in the center of the country, killing 520 passengers and crew members.
This disaster is considered one of the worst to affect a single aircraft in the history of air transport.
© 2024 AFP
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2024-01-02 12:19:04
